


Rewriting Seven Years

by CardiacGolem



Category: Original Work
Genre: Darkness, Fantasy, Fiction, Fictional Religion & Theology, Gen, Magic, Monsters, Original Character Death(s), Original Character(s), Original Female Character(s) - Freeform, Original Fiction, POV Original Female Character, Pirates, Religious Conflict, Robots, Science Fiction, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Thunder and Lightning, Tragic Romance, Vikings, Witches, light and dark
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-14
Updated: 2018-10-02
Packaged: 2019-03-31 12:24:10
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 18
Words: 71,989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13975077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CardiacGolem/pseuds/CardiacGolem
Summary: Cursed by a greater power, Robin Wattson lives a thousand lives, cursing everyone who loves her to join her in her thousandth life to be judged by the world around them. Delve into the world where she tries her dear best to make sure no one cares for her, but human emotion and insanity proves otherwise. Explore the minds of the people drawn to cherish Robin's life, even after learning her terrible curse.





	1. Giving Five

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to my good friend, Michal, for extracting an important part in my book from my broken laptops hard drive, i couldn't find it in myself to "rewrite" that entire part and I'm thankful that i don't have too anymore.  
> This isn't the full book, I'm still working on it.

As a kid I watched television religiously, and the ‘media’ was always wanting us, the viewer, to understand that dark was bad and light was good, that the world could be explained by the feeling of everything being black or white. Just like the totally invincible Star Wars franchise having a dark and light side to the force, but always regarded one as bad and the other as pure. Sadly, those feeling transitioned into my life; I owned toys that I played with whenever I could and I separated them by the shades of their color, the white one was the highest power of good and the dark green one was the worst thing _ever_.

But I grew up, and learned otherwise, retconned their whole social appearance and tried to rewrite the wrong I believed in. Seven years it took me to realize, and it is taking me longer to inscribe it. Now I've flooded my world in revitalizing waters, and began to drain it to explain the story I truly wanted to tell.

*******

As the water became level, two figures emerged. One white and cold as snow, the other green and tall strumming a scaly texture. Both were hunched over, their heads down, and their eyes cold and dead. There was silence. Nothing moved, as if time had stopped, or hadn't started.

Both of the figures face each other, they did not realize where they were, nor did they care about anything. A breeze picked up, and the white figure jiggled its arms forward. It shook its arms softly. It noticed that the wind was picking up fast and was creating an unbalance on each other. It took time before one or the other moved again. Something inside the green entity caused it to think. It thought out loud, but the noise did not come from its mouth.

_“Where am I?”_

The white one shook its arm again, as if it could hear the other. Once again, nothing; leaving both to lay there downtrodden. The wind became disturbing and devastatingly strong, but both figures didn't move. The white one’s eyes glowed like a searchlight; it was pale blue but filled with so much life. It saw how barren the ground was below it, all grey with no texture. The eyes could not move, but they could see. Behind the vision of ground, the eyes could see the wind. It was alarmingly blue, and as it became stronger as it flowed closer to its body. The wind wrapped and wrapped around the blue body; after each rotation it swirled before wrapping again. A second passed before all pain filled the white entity. its body jolted back and forth and its eyes blinked rapidly. No eyelids sealed its eyes, they flash back and forth, back and forth, it let out a painful exhale as the wind threw it to the blackened ground.

Its white body moved, for it finally controlled itself. It looked around; visibly it saw itself to be more colorful. It was shocked. Moving its blue and white body, it heard itself clunk. it's too robotic, but its real flesh. Unalarmed by its unnatural body it looked over to its green counterpart still standing across from it. It looked unreal. It seemed to not move as much as itself. The white one saw it had vines wrapping around the green one’s lower body. The white one got up and moved towards the other.

It thought, thought hard, every thought it could have, blasted in its head. In severe pain over the knowledge it has. It finally captured a single thought, _where_. “Where am I?” it called, it doesn’t think anyone heard him. Was it a _him_ , or an _it_? Two thoughts clash against each other and every thought explodes again. More and more thoughts enter its mind, it could not handle everything. He thought he could not make it. Every time it hears _HIM_ , he gets more thoughts. He spots a thought in his brain, it doesn’t move like the others, its calm, calling him. The thought was neither a word nor a sound. It was a color... no! A shade. Grey. He could finally move towards it, ignoring every other thought, pushing through every _HIM_.

He saw. He saw green below himself, viciously green. Vicious vines. His head was tilted all the way down. As he lifted his head, he saw white. Right in front of him was a figure. Pale white, _Clunky,_ it thought. The white figure gave a confused look. The green figure looked to its side and saw the whites arm on its shoulder. As it realized it was touching him, a sting on his shoulder caused his thoughts to fade and his vision go black.

A giant being sat above them. “I cannot control them anymore.” It spoke. “I must take control once more!” The two below could not see the giant being.

The green one opened his eyes once again. Lying on his back looking up to the White guy staring back at him for some time. “You look like a lizard.” The white one said, it spoke visibly, its jaw moved but its mouth did not open. its face was long, its eyes sharpen at each end, no brows, and at the top of its head had tubes going over back, imitating hair. its body had cracks at each movable joint and had clear, visible insides, his skeleton glowed blue.

“You look like a mix of a human and a lizard,” The white one commented.

“I do not understand those things, a lizard? A human?” the green one replied.

“I don’t either, that’s just what I thought,” the white one interjected.

The green one tried to think, he fails. “Wh-what’s your name?” he asked.

The white figure closed its eyes and thought, it thought hard. “Makurow. Do you know yours?”

“No.” he said. “But when I opened my eyes something said: _Garth_ ,” The green one said.

“Then Garth is your name,” Makurow whispered. Makurow offered its hand to Garth to get up. Garth gladly accepted. When Garth got close to Makurow, Makurow could see every feature on Garth. His body was dry, so his flesh looked like scales on a lizard. His lower body contained metal pieces sticking out in random places, causing his body to look even more damaged. Garth’s green color was a condition to being rotten, almost undead he looked.

After long investigation of Garth’s body, and Makurow’s to Garth, Makurow looked over Garth’s shoulders, to see nothing. All that was behind each other was just nothing. Complete emptiness forever, all was grey and flat. Both could see the curve of the horizon.

“Where are we?” Makurow asked softly.

“I don’t know… let’s find out!” Garth excitedly promoted. Garth let go of Makurow’s long held hand and perused north.

“Where are you going?” Makurow asked.

“North I presume.” Garth replied.

“Well, how do you know you are going north?” Makurow added.

“I don’t.” Garth picked up the pace while Makurow stopped to process Garth's words, and then quickly joined Garth in his walk.

What felt like ages past, but time did not change. The two still walked north. They never lost energy; just a constant walk and they didn't talk since the start. Every second in silence brought the two closer together. They had no idea what they were looking for; they had no idea of what they would find.

At this time, at their starting position, from where they first started walking from, rapidly changes occur. Land textures form, color emerged, and nature was born. Rapidly this change spread out in every direction. As the land changed, different biomes emerged. The now giant being above his world, became shocked and angry as his world begun changing without his consent. “Stop! I will not allow this.” The being shouted, trying to strike the land in front of himself, but instead of hurting the land, the beings fist reflected against the surface and reflected the being away from the land. Farther and farther away the being went and it was clear to him that his planet has betrayed him. In the giants last action, he ripped a part of his throat off and threw the piece to the world disappearing. Like thrown sand, the piece scattered. “Bring me back!” He exclaimed. “Do not make my art go to waste!”

Makurow’s pacing became more irritated, Makurow swayed side to side with each step. Garth turned his head around and quickly noticed Makurow’s change in movement. “You getting tired there, old one?” Garth asked.

“I’m as old as you, and no, I’m not tired.” Makurow angrily replied, staring at the mold ground on Garth's shoulder.

“I never said you were older, we have been walking for what seems like ages,” Garth explained, “Which, I just noticed, we haven’t talked.” Garth stopped and completely turned around to see Makurow’s reaction. Quickly his attention became drew to the incoming storm over the horizon behind Makurow. “You might want to see this.” Garth, terror-stricken, pointed out towards the horizon behind Makurow. Makurow turned around to look, it saw something coming over the far land. Makurow squinted to clearly see what it was. In seconds, the line of vast colors before seen, soon became a clear tidal wave of crowded colors. Makurow scarily acknowledged the wave, Makurow felt a tingling pain in every part of his body and every body part grew warm. Through those seconds, Makurow turned away from the wave, Makurow gained a jolt of energy, like lightning static, busting him in the opposite direction. Makurow dashed at an inhuman speed, so fast that the ground cracked underneath Makurow, sending ground and dirt skyrocketing behind Makurow with each step. While Garth body locked up and he stayed still in shock and awe, viewing the wave that was marvelously sky-scraping him and he did not turn to run. Even though Makurow had gained a new explosive speed, the tidal wave was infinitely faster than Makurow. In a second the wave was in front of Garth and he considered its massive size. Makurow stopped to witness the wave that was now coming from every direction. It was surrounding the point Makurow stood on. Makurow turned around and could not see Garth who was, to Makurow, clearly behind. In a millisecond Makurow became engulfed in the wave, forcefully shoving Makurow around, and for Makurow all was visually dark.

Makurow lied silent, but awake. Makurow stared at the sky as Makurow lied on its back. The before hard, dry land, now to Makurow was soft and somehow now forgiving, but Makurow ignored the feeling. Instead Makurow’s mind exploded with new thoughts, and this time it was focused on something. A figure Makurow made out. The figure had no face and was all plain in color.

The figure spoke to Makurow. “You, Makurow, man of conduction, you need to get out of this world. The only way you can is if you build an empire, but do not build an army, after then will a portal open and bring you to the place where you will want to be.” The figure animated a sword from its arms, pulled out of a cookie cutter shape. the sword was nowhere near sharp, but it gave off a strong presence for Makurow. The figure dropped the sword beside Makurow and the figure immediately vanished.

 _Man_. Makurow angrily thought, _am I a man_? As he got up and grabbed the sword with his right hand and felt it shock him, it didn't affect him. He looked around in awe. Everything he used to know was now beautiful. No anymore grey. No anymore flat, barren land. All was beautiful. Makurow rolled over to get up, after absorbing the knowledge of his surroundings, Makurow realized he didn't see Garth anywhere.

“Garth!” Makurow yelled. Makurow paused to hear a reply. Nothing. “GARTH!” Makurow yelled louder, and still nothing. Makurow slouched over and decides to walk in a random direction. “I will find you my friend.”

 

Garth watched as the wave engulfed him, he put out his arm to shield his eyes. Instantly the wave passed him. He moved his arm out of the way and his vision was blurred. His ear drum rang from the blast of color. He felt his body grow weaker, in a turn of rejection to failing, he moved through the fog of changing color that was thick and dark. Each step made him stumble but he refused to weaken. “Never will I fall,” He muttered. He continuously moved forward and through the fog he noticed two bright lights appear and grow brighter to just vanish. After the light vanished Garth noticed two small figures standing in front of him, one slim and the other beast like. Garth reached out towards the figures, and they turn and walk away. “No, come back. Who are you?” Garth called out. “Makurow, who are those guys?” Garth turned around and noticed that Makurow was never behind him since the wave passed. “If you can hear me Makurow; I’ll be back,” He exclaimed turning around and following the two figures.

*******

Makurow walked for days. Over vast terrains: mountains, hills, jungles. Nothing was plain and boring like before, but Makurow didn't acknowledge that, because his focus was on an old, lost friend. He didn't notice the damp lands of the rainforest he passed by, but what he did notice was that it was dark where he was, even though just minutes before it was bright out. His focus changes. It has never been dark out on this planet; it has always been brightly lit out. Makurow ran to the nearest exit of the forest. Once out, he stared at the sky. Darkness was true. Nothing was lit up in the skies. Then a thought occurred to Makurow, _where is the sun_. The sun was a new concept to Makurow, but it felt like he always knew about it. He continuously searched for a sun, but when he turned, still looking at the sky he noticed many red dots light up the sky. “Sun?” He whispered. _No those aren’t suns. They are stars._ Makurow thought. Makurow reached out to the sky trying to grab a star. He laughed. “Such a child,” he exclaimed. When he moved his hand he saw that the ‘stars’ were growing bigger and bigger. “What have I done?” Makurow stumbled backwards in fear, as he watched the stars come closer. “NO!” He yelled as the stars struck the earth. Each lit up the planet with each strike. Makurow dropped to his knees as the first one hit. Blinking as each followed up shock wave passed Makurow. After the last star struck the earth, there was a long silence. Makurow thought to himself out loud, “Wh-wh-what have I-I done?” muttering and stumbling at each word. “It’s not your fault,” A voice behind Makurow said. Makurow quickly spun around, drawing his sword at a creature standing behind him. “Who are you?” Makurow asked, panting at the previously viewed catastrophe.

“I am The Wonderer.”

  *******

I dropped my pencil in frustration; no more ideas are flowing through my head. Nothing. “What am I to write?” I say.

“I can’t help with that,” Theodor says, “You are the one with the vast imagination.” For some reason he made me angry with those words, but he's right. Why can I not imagine anything when I have to write it on paper, or type it up? I lose all sense of imagination.

“C’mon, we’ll be late for class,” He said. Without word I get up and lead the way to our next class. We pass by every other class before we get to ours.

“Why do our classes have to be on each end of the school?” I ask as I look over to Theodor, his face and body is deformed from his disease, everyone makes fun of him because of it. I think there is nothing wrong with him, and I act, well not act, I really just ignore the fact that his body is not normal. I never bring up the disease in fear that he’ll think me as the others, just another jerk.

“Tomas?” He asked as I realize I have been staring at him for a long time.

“I'm sorry what?” I ask.

“Are you sure I don’t disgust you?” He wonders.

“Disgust me how?”

“You know,” he replies.

“I'm sorry I have no idea what you are talking about,” I insist. He gives me a weak smile. I know, that he knows, that I know he has a problem, but I don’t believe that. He has a great mind, acing every class he has, and is great at talking to people, well, when he's not being bullied. He's not overweight, even though I know his disease is making it hard for him to exercise. He could take on anyone, everyone who ever bullied him would feel his wrath. What am I thinking? I don’t know why Theodor thinks my imagination is safe. He always encourages me to expel my imagination, but sometimes I feel like it would be a terrible thing to do. In turn I encourage him to be himself and ignore everyone who upset him. “We’re here.” Theodor interrupt my thinking. It makes you wonder how thinking really passes the time.


	2. Ranger

Makurow lowered his sword. “what?” He asked, “Who are you?” Waiting for a response, the green beast turned around and started moving.

After a few steps, it turned its head around and replied, “I said, I am the Wonderer. Now, I know you are looking for your friend and you also want answers for what just happened.” The green beast moved ahead, using its large front arms as its main legs, and drags the back, stubby, bent legs. It has its claws in the back pointed out, _as a weapon,_ Makurow thought. “No, they’re just like that, ok?” The Wonderer angrily answered, after Makurow forgot that when he thought, others could hear him.

“I'm sorry,” He apologized, “I just have seen some weird things lately.” There is a long silence as Makurow followed this _being_. Makurow noticed that the beast had long spikes flowing from behind its head, but Makurow didn't make a note of it in his head in fear of offending it again. “So… are you going to answer my questions?” Makurow asked.

“No,” The Wonderer quickly answered, almost trying to interrupt him.

“Wait, you just said you would answer my questions,” Makurow angrily brought up.

“No, I said I know you have questions you want answering,” The Wonderer responded. Makurow quickly stopped and held out his sword again.

“Then why am I following you then?” Makurow demanded.

“Because I know someone who can answer those questions, now it is your choice to follow me or not. I don’t care.” The Wonderer’s response gave Makurow a shocking look, and then Makurow decided to catch up with the distant beast.

After many, of what seemed like days past, Makurow and The Wonderer came up to an edge of a biome they were transcending. The ground in front of them looks remarkably close to texture to that of plain land Makurow woke up in. “Wait. Where are we going?” Makurow asked.

“Where we are going is just beyond this biome,” The Wonderer said, “Why do you ask?” Makurow squinted, looking at the edge of the horizon, he saw a little structure.

“Ok, but why do we have to go this way?” Makurow asked.

“Where else are we going to go? This way is fine, don’t worry,” The Wonderer said.

“This place looks dangerous,” Makurow pointed out, “I don’t feel safe going this way, and I refuse to follow you now.”

“Here, if you still want to meet up with us, we’ll be at that structure. This way is the safest way to it, trust me I would know, but if you don’t believe me, you can see for yourself,” the beast explained. Makurow angrily marched his way around the threatening, plain, grey land before him. After a few steps, Makurow turned around to see what the creature was doing, and to Makurow’s surprise, the beast was trekking the land. Straight forward to the structure at the end. _Why is it not being harmed?_ Makurow thought. The plain land looked harmful to Makurow, something didn't feel right when he was near it. Makurow furiously turned around to continue his walk around the frightening land. To make his trip shorter, he followed close to the edge, but not daring to put an inch of foot off the edge onto the scary land.

*******

“Come back,” Garth pleaded. The two figures in the mist quickly escaped him. “Please don’t go!” Garth yelled. He began to chase them faster. His legs began to tingle as he moved faster and faster. Then at one point, Garth moved at an incredible pace, almost as fast as Makurow was running, but not as fast. Garth’s breathing became unstable, his heart and lungs began to hurt, Garth was confused by this, he had never been _Tired_. Even though he was moving fast, the figures were still disappearing at the same rate, like a floater in the eye. Garth’s vision started to clear up and the fog dispersed revealing nothing to be there. Garth did not slow down; instead he picked up the pace. “What is this power refusing me to go faster and carry on,” Garth asked himself in confusion. After expelling his voice, his body weakened. He tripped on his own volition, crashing to the ground. Garth rolled around wheezing, “never *Wheeze* have I been this *Wheeze* weak,” Garth tried speaking under his own breath. It took time for Garth to recover his energy. “What happened to me?” Garth secretly asked himself.

“It’s called being tired.” A voice spoke behind him. Garth rolled over to his side to look up to a blue figure. “It’s called being human, you should know that better than me,” the blue figure explained.

“Y-you.” Garth weakly pointed to the figure, “I saw you… in the fog.” The blue figure tilted his head in confusion. “Where’s the other one? I saw two of you. Where is your friend?” Garth carries on.

“Fog...? Oh, you mean The Wonderer. Yeah he went to find your friend, uh… Makurow I think his name was,” The figure added.

“What? How do you know his name? How did you know he was with me?” Garth asked.

“OH, uh… don’t worry, everyone knows who you guys are,” The blue guy commented a bit stressed.

“There are more of you?!” Garth scarily asked.

“Ah, yes there is more… well, there WILL be more, just you wait,” It admitted, “And they will know immediately who you guys are, they’ll know who all of us are. I'm surprised you don’t already know who I am,” The figure mentioned.

“I'm sorry I don’t,” Garth apologized.

“I'm Sibious, but you can call me Zip” Zip put in a friendly voice. Garth was then fully energized and gave his own friendly smile. “Come,” Zip put out his hand, offering to help Garth up, “You got questions and I got answers.” Garth gladly accepted Zip's hand. Garth's body warmed up to the touch of Zip's hand. “Come, I’ll answer your questions while we met up at the rendezvous, The Wonderer agreed to meet up there,” Zip explained. Garth quickly got up and let go of Zip's hand. Garth saw that Zip was very small, and very robotic like Makurow. “Ok, let us begin.”

*******

I sat in class _; yeah, yeah, yeah. I know all this stuff. This is not even review and I know all this. Keep talking; I'm not listening. How did you even get this job old man? I wonder what Theodor is doing_. I think.

I turn my whole upper body on my chair, to look at Theodor who is directly behind me. I am obviously going to talk to him, I'm in the front row and I know for sure my teacher is looking at me. “What’s up Theo?” I whisper, Theodor gives me a cautioning look. Ah I know what he's trying to say, I'm going to get us both in trouble. I really don’t care. I return a confused look. He immediately gives me an angry look. I roll my eyes and face back to the front of my desk, I did in fact get an answer for my question; he’s drawing. The only things on his desk are a drawing book and his phone. He uses his phone to look up ideas to draw. Oh his talent, I can’t believe he doesn’t think he's a great artist like I think he is. I don’t know if he's being modest or if he is just dumb. I have a good memory, one quick glance from two second ago and I can remember exactly what he's drawing.

It was this small blue figure wearing this like “hazmat suit” and you could not see his face because he has a grey, dome helmet. It looked interesting, but what is this drawing for. Maybe he's some sort of person trapped in this wasteland that he needs to figure out if anyone else exist there. No it can’t be. I know Theodor has a vivid mind, that guy could be in infinite amounts of stories, and that gives me an idea for a story.

  *******

Makurow walked at a slow pace as he approached the forest. He looked over his shoulder and watched as The Wonderer was quickly making his way towards the structure. _What is the feeling that is drawing me away from that path?_ Every step made Makurow weaker, and he was instantly aware of this. Makurow looked down at his feet, long black vines emerged from the ground and tried wrapping around his feet. Makurow heart started to pound viciously and his breathing grew faster as he started to pry off the wraps on his feet. It was easy but was making him weaker with each touch of a vine. He continuously ripped and threw vines off him. More seemed to emerge and overwhelmed him. With all his strength that he had, he ferociously started to slash the wraps with his sword, ignoring the consequences if he hit himself.

His vision grew dark as he felt the vines consuming him. With all his remaining might he swung one last powerful swipe.

His vision was completely black, he had no idea if he had gotten all of them off or not. “Have I failed,” He whispered. His ears started to ring as the vision began to cure. He took a quick look around and noticed nothing was on him anymore. He took large steps back. He took a full check of his body to make sure no more vines were on him. The ground below didn't contain any resemblance of destruction from vines extruding. “I haven’t failed yet,” He chuckled.

Continuously stepping backwards, with his mind to the tress, he was clueless of a terrible darkness watching him, a ferocious vine stood looming over Makurow. He continued to move backwards, rethinking going over the barren land, _what’s in that forest_? He thought as he glanced up at the forest he was walking towards, as he squinted to get a better look at the forest. He noticed the unnecessary amount of cluttered trees, causing the land below them to be pitch black, but he shockingly noticed black color dripping from the trees tip. Some sort of liquid seeping from each tree.

One extra step and he bumped into the large vine. Quickly spinning around and drawing his sword once again, but this time his heart and breath was calm and focused, not frightened. He stared right at the middle of the stem, no clear sight of the top. He slowly moved his head upward to see the massive height of the vine. Makurow gave out a shivering breath as the vine hunched over and revealed its top. On top was a massive, dark hand. There was a pause and silence as both stare each other down, and in moment’s time, the hand reeled back and clenched to punch. “You cannot defeat me!” Makurow angrily yelled as he swung back his sword and took one big, long, shallow breath. Makurow felt a power filling his soul as he lashed out a swing at the large fist coming his way, and sliced the vine in half in the middle. He watched as the main vine stiffed up and the top bounced away from its body. After a few bounces, while the fist still clenched, stopped bouncing and rolled away. Vine started to spew black liquid and the body shrivel up during. Makurow stepped back to dodge the airborne liquid. He noticed the resemblance to the forests tree liquid.

Makurow then focused on his sword which was now strongly glowing blue, and was affecting his body. Illuminating his skeleton, so bright that he was able to clearly see his bones under the metal skin. His hands grew even brighter, “What is this power?” He questioned as he reached out his arm to the far distance, something felt so natural to do so. His fingertips tingled and softly vibrated. Makurow could feel power building up in his hand. Static discharged as he lets go of the power in his hand. A powerful electric charge went off from his hand and sporadically shot electric jolts everywhere. Makurow gave out a giggle but immediately realized that he had no control over his own power. He let go of his sword to grab his powerful twitching left hand. Makurow frantically noticed the blue color flowing towards the exploding hand. His blurring vision returned and his body quickly weakened. He instantly collapsed to the ground with his hand still firing wildly. In the side of his vision he noticed the black vines returning. Makurow was paralyzed by his own power and could not move. He stared at his sword barely out of his reach, he could not grab it, not as much as touch it. As all hope was about to be lost, the vines quickly reached out to Makurow’s face, but a quick green figure crashes through the vines. Giving Makurow time to breathe and think, _Thresh._

*******

“What is this place?” Garth asked Zip.

“No one knows, no one will know, it just showed up with the rest of this world,” Zip answered. Garth walked around the large structure, three statues in lunging stance, each in their own unique upper body pose. All posed around a boring, large, smooth pillar. “The mind creates what it wants,” Zip added. Garth moves his focus to the biome behind the structure.

“What is that place? It looks familiar,” Garth asked. Zip walked up beside him and pointed towards the barren land.

“That… is nothing,” Zip said.

“What do you mean?” Garth asked.

“It’s neither a desert nor a plain, it’s the absent of land.” Garth looked at Zip with a confusing look. “The brain has a vast imagination; it can create anything it wants. But sometimes, the mind has blanks,” Zip quoted. Garth's eyes widened as he gnawed at Zip's words.

  *******

Makurow’s head smacked against a hard rock. In pain he tried to grab his head, but his arm got hit by another passing rock. Makurow was confused, only to realize he was being dragged on the rough ground, and he could feel himself running over rocks and bumps. Makurow lifted his head, a heavy object was gripping hard to his legs. _The Hand?!_ Makurow drew his sword fast,

“Easy there,” a familiar voice told him.

“Thresh?” Makurow asked.

The voice gave a happy laugh, “No. I am The Wonderer,” He said, “but I am pleased to hear you think of me as you friend. I know he is a peculiarly strong character.”

Makurow tried to raise his body off the ground to give a good look at The Wonderer. “Sorry I just thought you were Garth,” Makurow apologized.

“What! Garth! No, you called me Thresh,” The Wonderer interjects, “He's the one you are looking for, right; It shouldn’t be Garth you are looking for. No, not yet.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Your friend is Thresh; you shouldn’t know Garth yet. I'm bringing you to Thresh, not Garth.” The wonderer said panicking.

“What are you saying? Garth told me he heard that his name was Garth in a vision,” Makurow explained.

“Ah that must have been the Guardian,” The Wonderer realized, feeling less nervous, Wonderer was worried that Makurow had met with an evil being.

“Guardian?” Makurow asked.

“The Guardian tells us who or what we are looking for. Your friend, Thresh, must be looking for Garth,” The Wonderer explained.

Makurow lied his head down, just to run over another bump. “What’s going on? Where are you taking me?” Makurow angrily struggled to get out of The Wonderer’s grip.

“Calm down. I am taking you across the Greyland,” The Wonderer easily said.

“Greyland?” Makurow asked while still struggling.

“The land you were too scared to cross earlier; haven’t you noticed that the land has become smoother?” The Wonderer questioned. Makurow weakened his struggle and rolled to his side and saw the clear, smooth, grey land. “I'm going to show you why you shouldn’t be afraid of it,” The Wonderer put on, “and I will show you how to control it.” The Wonderer dropped Makurow’s legs, letting them crash to the ground. The Wonderer continued to walk to the structure. “Get up,” The Wonderer insisted. Makurow frantically tried to get up and once standing he brushed off dirt from his legs. “You faced a power just minutes ago,” Wonderer said, “Do you know what that power was?” Makurow tried to walk towards The Beast, but he had seemed to have gotten farther away than expected. Makurow’s strength was failing him as he drags his sword across the ground, heavily breathing.

“I don’t know, what _was_ that?” Makurow released with a weak breath.

“It’s called the darkness; we are almost near the spot; I need to show you something,” The Wonderer frantically said while looking back and forth at each of his hands. Makurow finally caught up to The Beast and laid his hand upon his shoulder; The Wonderer turned its head, to look to Makurow. Makurow saw that The Wonderer’s pupils were smaller than usual and shrunken into his head. “If you are caught in the darkness, it can and will consume you.” The Wonderer’s eyes expanded with every word, his voice stayed the same but every word burned into Makurow’s brain. “I have seen the Darkness true power; I’ve been in front of the Darkness’ power. The only way to destroy the darkness is to bring the light. The darkness’ true power lies where the light does not naturally shine, but if you could carry the light and bring it to the darkness…” The Wanderer’s eye returned to normal and his voice smoothened; his body slouched as he looked to the ground. “This planet used to be a perfect power of light, but when the land refused the guardians protection, the darkness grew quickly. The darkness pushed the light far away and into a compressed spot. You are standing on the strongest power of light.” The Wonderer looked back up at Makurow. “Your sword is very special.” The Wanderer shakenly pointed to Makurow’s sword in hand. “You can use your sword to absorb the light, and at any time.” The Wanderer walked around Makurow while Makurow scanned his sword with the tips of his fingers. “With it you can fight back the darkness that repels it.”

Makurow took a few steps back planting both feet strong on the ground, and without hesitation, he clasped both his hands together on his sword, bringing the sword far over his head. Every bone in his body glowed blue and his hands started to warm up with power. With the grand of his strength, he plowed his sword far into the ground. Closing his eyes while his vision grew bright.

When Makurow opened his eyes, he found himself in a field of flower. Every flower tickled his feet, and when he looked down, he noticed he was missing his sword. He was not worried. He moved around and started picking flowers, one blue, one gold, yellow, red, white, and two grey. He looked at all the colors he picked, Makurow was confused, there was a color missing.

His attention was drawn to the top of the hill. One, single, orange flower sat at the top of the hill. Makurow happily galloped up the hill, firmly grasping the many colours. At the top of the hill, Makurow met with the one orange flower, and, it filled Makurow with happiness and joy.

Makurow went through his assorted flowers, gently grabbing and separating each, one by one to get a good look at each. As he picked up each flower, they glowed for a separate second. Makurow giggled as he put all of them down in a gentle pile. He wiped excess flowers from his hands as he turned around. He took a few steps when he looked past the vast field of flowers, a darkness crept over the horizon. It instantly reached Makurow, but, passed Makurow and directly attacked his pile of flowers.

Every pedal fell off their respected stems and each were drained of their colour. Makurow frantically tried to put every pedal back on as they fall. Makurow watched helplessly as each perfectly picked flowers became dried up and died. A hand creeped up behind Makurow and instantly snatched him off the ground. Makurow freaked out as he was unaware that the being grabbing him was not part of the darkness, his figure glowed with strong light. The being was what Makurow seemed to think was the ‘Guardian’. The strong being released eight strands of light. Each strand floated down to a flower, refilling their life. The flowers regain their colour and they started to regrow their petals, but they had a certain shine added to them. The being turned Makurow around to face him. The being raised him a million feet off the ground, all the way up to its grand face. “Secure the key!” The being yelled at Makurow, then dropped him into a free fall, plummeting to the ground below him. Seconds before he reached the ground, Makurow closed his eyes and woke up from the occurring nightmare. He was back in the Greyland. His sword was deep into the ground and strongly glowing with light. Heavily breathing.

  *******

I exit my social class, which, is the only time that I'm not with Theodor. It worries me, what if something happens to him, I'm not there to protect him. I do go to find him after every class, but it’s a surprise to me if I can find him. it’s up to that class for me to know if Theo is still here, there has been many time where he hasn’t. I suppose today is one of those days, because he didn’t emerge from his class. He must have gone home early. Now I have to sit through lunch by myself; I hope Theo eats lunch. I walk myself to the cafeteria, well, it’s more of an open space with a bunch of tables, and it connects to every hall and the entrance. it's the first place you see when you walk in, and it also connects to the theatre, it's a big theatre, something the school gets a lot of credit for. The theatre is closed off most of the time, and its usually only used for production, so that’s where I take back some of the appraise. I sit in the very far back of the cafeteria, where the big stained glass sits. I have no idea of what the stained glass is trying to make out. it's supposed to be our mascot, but no one knows what our mascot is. We are called the “Mythics” and the mascot seems to be some weird looking otter. I like where I sit, the stained glass where I sit up against gives me, when I eat, mood lighting. The only downside to where I sit is the people I sit beside, the nerds. All they talk about is the most boring things, blab blab blah. I don’t listen to what they say; I just sit and think to myself. I create my favorite stories while eating, and some of Theodor’s favorites too. I wish I could move spots, but there seems to be no seats open, and I don’t think I would fit in anywhere else. The “cool” group sits in the very front, right by the door. I don’t know why; it seems like a pretty dumb place to be to talk about what they talk about; anyone who enters can hear their dumb gossip. One time I heard one of the popular girls, Haley, talk about hanging out alone with an older guy at his house, disgusting. I don’t know how they live like this; they are also the ones who bully people, by the by. “Cool guys!” _Yeah right_.

“May I sit here?” a voice talks to me.

“Uh what, oh yeah sure,” I stumble to force out words, usually no one sits beside me, but this peculiar person decided to.

“You seemed lonely, what’s your name?” this…person asks.

“Tomas,” I reply. There is nothing much to this person, bright blue eyes, long hair, soft voice.

“What-cha doing there?” I didn’t quite realize I had a piece of paper out and started to draw something, all I got down was two circles.

“Creating,” I said, “I mean drawing.” The person starts to pull the paper with two fingers from under my face.

“You said ‘creating’, what you mean by that?” the girl asks.

“Well, I take ideas and I create a vast story with it. Every picture has a story, so I'm not just drawing, I'm creating.” I look up to what I expected a person sitting beside me, but instead no one’s there. I don’t think I would fit in anywhere else.


	3. steeler

“What just happened?” Makurow asked. The Wonderer walked and avoided looking at Makurow.

“You just absorbed the light, now push back the darkness,” The Wonderer excitedly reminded.

“I understand that, but what did I just witness,” Makurow frantically asked.

“A vision?” The Wonderer proposed. Makurow went on and explained the whole dream he just went through and when he brought up the giant being, The Wonderer’s eyes lit up, “Guardian,” He whispered. Makurow tilt his head in confusion. “You had a run in with a Guardian, what did he say?!” The Wonderer excitedly asked.

“He said to ‘secure the key’; but I think I had a run in with it previously, and it told me to ‘build an empire’,” Makurow explained.

“Ah, Guardians have many instructions; did you know I'm still waiting for mine?” The beast asked.

“Really?” Makurow shockingly asked, “but mine came so soon; twice.”

The Wonderer smiled and started to walk towards the structure, “Yes, sometimes it seems like we never get our instructions; you are very lucky,” The Wonderer explained.

“How do I fulfil my instructions?” Makurow asked as he started to catch up with the beast.

“Well if your first instructions were to ‘build an empire’, then I'm guessing you need to… I don’t know,” The Wonderer tried to help, “You know Guardians are very sneaky with their words; sometime they give you the literal instructions or they are very vague.”

Makurow looked down as he revised the Guardians words in his head, “So do you think I need to _literally_ build an empire, or figuratively?” He asked The Wonderer.

“I don’t know,” The Wonderer was clueless. “Maybe the light you hold can help.”

“What’s with you and ‘The light’?” Makurow asked.

“Well… the light is a beautiful thing.” The beast clasped his hands together. “Not only is it a power, but it can also create life; everyone has a little light in them, even if you choose not to accept it.”

Makurow face lit up as he realized something, “I think I know how to build an empire.” Makurow started to raise his sword, “I can give objects life.”

The beast smiled at Makurow’s realization, but then frightened as he explained: “You’ve only absorbed a fraction of the light; you are not as powerful as you think you are, you better be careful with your new power.” Makurow questioned The Wonderer and to his explanation: “Any more of light and it would have consumed you.”

Makurow was scared from Wonder's words, “What do you mean ‘consume’, I thought only the darkness could consume.”

The beast replied: “Everything in this world can, and will consume you. You didn’t think you were invincible, right? The Light will destroy the darkness, but cannot protect you from it.”

“How do I protect myself from the darkness then?” Makurow asked.

To Wonder's content: “There are some who can control their power; those who, can defeat the opposition, and some are legions of their power. No! Pawns.” Makurow was scared as he realized he might have involuntarily joined something he could not escape. Wonder gave him the no worries and lead him to the structure rendezvous.

As Makurow got closer to the structure, two figures became clearly visible; one of which, was Thresh, Makurow best friend. Makurow was filled with happiness as he ran towards him, when Thresh realized who Makurow was as well, he too ran towards Makurow. They meet at the edge of the Greyland and they hug each other. “OH rejoice,” Thresh said.

“It’s been a while, friend,” Makurow said as he shed a small tear.

Thresh pushed Makurow to look at his face. “Why are you crying?” He asked.

“It’s been a while since I saw a friendly face,” Makurow explained.

“Oh that makes me feel good,” The Wonderer sarcastically said as he passed by the rejoined friends.

“Let it go Wonder, you guys just met,” Zip said.

“Who’s your friend?” Makurow happily redirected their attention to Zip.

“I was going to ask you the same question for him,” Thresh pointed Wonderer out to Makurow.

“Makurow, I am Sibious,” Zip greeted, “and Thresh this is The Wonderer, my friend.”

Makurow’s eyes lit up as he remembers that Thresh is called Thresh, “Thresh do you know that’s your name?” He asked.

“No worries friend, Sibious told me everything I need to know,” Thresh explained.

“Please Sibious is too formal, I said to call me Zip,” Zip insisted.

“Zip can answer any exceeding questions you have,” The Wonderer expelled, “everything I have told you is what Zip has told me, anything else you have a question about is beyond me. So go ask him what you want.”

Makurow laughed, “I think I have my answers.”

Zip squinted at Makurow to focus on him, “No, I know you have questions.” Zip read Makurow mind, “You have questions about the incident not too long ago.”

Thresh interjected, “Wait, what incident. The crashing stars?”

Zip smiled, “Most certainly.”

Makurow becomes very confused, “what do you mean ‘the crashing stars’, you mean when they hit the planet?”

“The reason the stars fell is because this planet is no longer under the Guardians protection,” Zip explained as he lowered his head, “Once the stars hit this planet, we lost their light. Now the darkness can rise.”

Makurow walked over to one of the statue structure and sat underneath it. Drawing out his sword to take a good look at it. Thresh, stood over him, taking a good look at the statue. “What’s up?” Thresh asked but did not look away from the statue.

Makurow slowly looked directly up and giggled at a childishly, unfunny thought, then proceeded to explain, “You know the Guardian right?” Thresh gave a weak nod. “Well he told me to build an empire. I don’t know what that means. Well I think I know what it means, but-”

Thresh interjected, “Well. It just told me ‘Garth’, to which I thought was my name.” Makurow completely ignored Thresh’s comment.

“I think I know what it means, and I think I know how ‘build’ it.” To which Makurow immediately stood up and proceeded to approach Zip. “Zip!” Makurow yelled.

Zip turned around to face Makurow and gave him a glad smile. “yes?”

“Can you build a body?” Makurow quickly asked.

“Um, yes?” Zip replied confused, “What do you mean by build a body?”

Makurow smiled, “I know how to build an empire.”

Zip regained a smile, then turned around and consulted The Wonderer, who was grooming himself like a small precious animal. “Wonder!” Zip called out.

The Wonderer angrily turned around, “What?”

Zip approached him and put his hand on Wonder's shoulder, “Let’s go grab some materials, Makurow is going to build robots.” Zip explained, then turned around to inform Makurow, “We’ll be back, make sure you stay near this place; we should be back next sun rise.”

Makurow became very confused, “What do you mean sun rise?” He asked.

“The sun will go down, and then it will come back,” Zip comically explained, “and during its disappearance the darkness’ legions should arise. Stay here, the darkness shouldn’t reach you here.” After those words Sibious and The Wonderer left.

Makurow turned around and noticed Thresh sitting where Makurow was about a minute ago.

“Do you know who Garth is?” Thresh asked.

“No sorry,” Makurow said, “but Wonderer seems frightened by that name.”

Thresh eyes fired up and he clenched his fist, “And so does Zip, but he won’t tell me why.” Thresh proceeded to punch the statue and to no effect, the statue stayed unharmed. But Thresh's hand throbbed at the pain endured from punching solid stone. “Stupid,” Thresh grinded his teeth.

“Hey Thresh calm down,” Makurow softly spoke.

Thresh spoke as his eyes water and he began to tremble. “Why did you get _two_ immediate messages, and I barely got one word?”

Makurow gently laid his hand upon Thresh’s shoulder, staring deep into his eyes to find an appropriate answer. “The Wonderer told me that ‘You know Guardians are very sneaky with their words; sometime they give you the literal instructions or they are very vague.’” When Makurow quoted Wonderer, his voice morphed and twisted to represent an almost exact replicated voice. Makurow seemed to not notice this, but Thresh very much did. Thresh noticed the almost identical voice, not only voice, but also the speech pattern, lisp, and The Wonderer’s way of finishing a sentence with a tone that sounds like he is saying something he shouldn’t have.

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” Thresh said as he tried to avert from the weird incident recently occurred. Then, as Makurow released from Thresh’s shoulder, Thresh moved to the edge of the structures biome. He stared off into the distance, as he noticed the sun rapidly falling. “Do you like Sibious?” Thresh happily asked.

“Yeah sure. I mean from the short time that I met him, he seems pretty nice,” Makurow replied as he looked over his oddly dull sword.

“I like him too,” Thresh said, “He helps me understand what is going on in this cryptic world.” Thresh, as the sun reached the edge of the horizon, began to tight rope along the line splitting the biome from the Greyland. “The mind sometimes runs out of ideas; I think that’s what Zip said to me when I asked why this place existed.” As he walked along the line he noticed how the change between biomes look; _as if someone ran out of paint_ , he thought.

The orange sun hid behind the world, and in the pure darkness Thresh closed his eyes and absorbed the feeling around him. “But I think he is wrong about the darkness,” Thresh explained, “I think the darkness is misunderstood; there must be a reason why the world doesn’t want the light anymore.” Thresh opened his eyes and angrily pointed to the Greyland. “I mean look at this place; the world killed stars, refused any other protection from a god, compressed all the light as much as it could, and sprouted life all around us.” Thresh turned around to look at Makurow; with the little light that entered their eyes, he could barely make out Makurow’s figure. “Do you remember the world before? What was the god protecting the world from?”

Thresh took a step back, onto the Greyland. The Greyland instantly glowed, shining light across the whole land. Visibly bright. Makurow as well lit up, head to toe, tip of his sword to the hilt. Makurow dropped his sword with fright and the swords light quickly faded. Scanning over his whole body, his light was blinding but didn't blind himself.

“Look what you did to yourself!” Thresh yelled at Makurow.

“You don’t understand, this is how I can complete my mission,” Makurow yelled, pleading to a distant voice.

“Remember this: this ‘mission’ will be your demise, when you realize this you can find me.” As Thresh released his last breath he disappeared, and so did the light around him. What did appear was the sun behind Makurow; quickly rising.

“But I just found you,” Makurow softly whispered and tears flowed down his face.

 

After hours of Makurow curled up and lying against the statute, Zip and The Wonderer finally returned. Sibious quickly noticed Makurow’s state and pointed it out to Wonder, then proceeded to scurry to Makurow's aid. “What happened? Where’s Thresh?” Zip asked frantically.

The Wonderer slowly walked up beside Zip, dropping the large wool bag he was carrying. “We told you to stay here, now look what you’ve done, you lost Thresh.” He angrily said.

“No-no-no, we were here, it was dark, Thresh stepped on the Greyland, and now he's gone.” Makurow tried to explain.

“I don’t understand,” Zip tried to think, “The Greyland and the light are supposed to protect us, not take us.”

“He didn’t agree with the light, he said he trusted the darkness.” Makurow again tried to explain.

“See I told you,” Wonder said as he shoved Zip. “I told you to show him the light, now he's corrupted.”

“Why do you guys hate the darkness?!” Makurow interrupted. Both Zip and Wonder looked at each other in fear.

  *******

“When the world was just dust and sand in empty space,” I explain vividly, “Gods stood in family to share their dust equally. The elder gods took action to share the dust, the elders felt that giving the younger more or equal would be a bad idea. Mostly because they saw them as irresponsible, so the elders gave the younglings a very small portion of dust. One of the younger became angry as he saw through the elders lies as they told them that the dust was shared _equal_. In anger, it robed one of the other younger of most of its dust. The angered young created a big ball that stood out to all other spheres, with it, the angered young pledged to show the elders that they _were_ responsible. But the elders didn’t take it that way. Instead, they banished the angered youngling and destroyed its creation. The before robbed youngling, with whatever left of dust it had, began to create something special. Every other god was able to create worlds with life and prosperity with their dust, but the robbed young was only able to roll up a small ball, but the god was content with what it had. Soon the young god watched the other gods’ creations began to corrupt. Everything with lush life and beautiful greens began to darken, every god’s creation but its own. It was the curse that the banished god laid upon any god under its family that ever decided to create a world better than its own. The young god looked happily at its untouched gray planet, while the other gods were frantically trying to cure the curse. When they saw that the younger had a planet still untouched, they robbed him of whatever the god had left, its small helpless ball. The young god cried and cried as it was dragged away from its creation. In one last effort, the crying young sent mortals down to its world, through its tears, to bring its light back. Each mortal strapped with a mission and a purpose; the god now could only hope.” As I take loud breaths as I finish my long story. We sit peacefully by a table by ourselves. Theodor applauds loudly.

“That was a wonderful story Tomas,” Theo congrats.

I smile. “Thanks, I was working on that story all yesterday,” I explain.

“Was that before or after you imagined that beautiful girl?” Theo bugs me.

“Ok I told you, it wasn’t a beautiful girl it was just _a_ girl, and I don’t even know if it _was_ a girl,” I angrily explain.

“Was it because you missed me?” once again Theo bugs.

“You left me alone without telling me what happened to you, I was worried about you.”

“I'm sorry; I told you I was at a doctor’s appointment; I didn’t think you would have cared that much about me, not with me being gone all the time because of my mental attacks.” Theodor’s tone changes innocently.

“Well I **do** care about you, you’re my best friend.”

“Thanks.” Theo pulls out his lunch, the same sandwich I packed. I haven’t taken a bite of my sandwich because I was so occupied with talking. “You know what you should write a book.”

“A book?” I ask.

“Yeah, you have so many stories you could just compile them into one book; you can become famous.”

“I do not know; I do not think people would want to read a book of short stories. I know I wouldn’t, it would be like the school English textbooks.”

“Yeah I think you’re right,” Theodor sadly agrees.

“I know I'm right,”

We both pick up our sandwiches and take a bite in unison, I notice this, we look like idiots, I analyze the situation while Theo stares off into the distance. And then, “I know!” Theo exclaims with a full mouth and tries to swallow a giant bite of sandwich, “write a book with all your stories combined.”

“But all my stories are in different times and universes, how am I going to put them in one story?”

“I think I know how.” Theodor then finishes his sandwich in two giant bites in one second, packs up then gets up to leave.

“What are you in a hurry for?” I ask.

“If you aren’t going to write a book then I will, and I know how it will go,” Theo says with a sandwich full mouth.

“Don’t you have English next class?”

Theo nods, “Exactly.”

  *******

Makurow slashed his sword, cutting a perfect cylinder, the size of his own forearm. Then he strapped the cylinder on a metal pole that was coated in wires. “How’s the building, Makurow?” Zip asked politely.

“Well, I’ve finished a first model of a robot,” Makurow replied as he moved the big metal piece to the side, on the metal table he made.

“But?” Sibious asked after Makurow gave a long pause.

Makurow gave a frustrated look. “I got the figure right, the build, everything except when I shock it with light, it doesn’t even move.” Makurow moved to a body that sat defeated beside the table.

“That’s where your mistake is,” Zip said as Makurow picked up the body to lay it on the table. “You made the body before the heart.”

“The heart?”

“Yes ‘the heart’.” Zip stood beside Makurow and lifted the robot’s chest plate, revealing a mess of wires and metal rods. “You’ve been trying to give cold bone life, when you need a warm heart.”

“What does a heart have to do with this?”

“I have a heart.” Zip pointed to his chest, then tapped Makurow’s chest. “And you have a heart; it's what powers our body and what gives us our feelings.”

“What if I don’t want them to have a heart, what if their feeling goes against me, like Thresh’s?”

“They _need_ a heart, if you are worried that they won’t respect you, then you need to make them respect you.” Zip laid his hand upon Makurow’s chest then pointed to the open carcass of a robot. Zip whispers: “ _They_ need a heart.”


	4. Lights out

It has been three months since Thresh disappeared and Makurow did not take it right. Every waking hour Makurow tried to build a perfect robot, with the mindset that once he did, he would mass produce it to make his “empire”. His first robot was a mess. Makurow thought it would work the first time he tried, but he was wrong. Without a starting plan it became a trouble issue for Makurow to finish his first build. In anger, he tried to see how his powers work. He pointed his sword at the laying skeleton, and without focus from Makurow, the sword fired a shot of light that crushed the body of metal instantly. Makurow’s anger burned inside him as he realized this ‘light’ backfired on him, and with this burning anger he shot a blast of lightning from his hand that shocked the crumpled metal body. Makurow then realizes what he is doing wrong, not only should he give them his light to guide them, but also his power to strengthen them.

Three months, three long months, but in those months the crew had built a little camp around the stone structure. Makurow built a workshop on the side facing the Greyland. Makurow hopped one day, or one night, Thresh would approach from the Greyland and see what Makurow has done and side with him. But not now because Makurow hadn't made anything spectacular except a shack pushed up against a statue. The statue had one hand reached out above it, like it was trying to hold out something. His shack is nothing special, a simple table, some tools and scraps that he used to build the shack that he now uses for building robot.

Zip and Wonder had made their own stations for their own work. Zip tried to make tools and help build with Makurow, while The Wonderer used his time to study every material he possessed. The Wonderer, over the three months, had grown a love for the small things in the world, every rock he picked up he distinguished it from all the other stones. In the months he noticed the structure they were staying at had a similarity to stone, but he cannot find a stone similar to it. As he scanned the structure, he noticed the strength, texture and size that no other stone had, and he questioned its existence.

Makurow walked over to Zip, “Do you have any way I could jot down my ideas?” He asked Zip who was currently moving some materials around.

“What you probably want is console, and that is what The Wonderer and I are trying to make.” Zip replied, placing a rod of metal against stone, leaving half of it off the rock.

“Is that what you are making now?” Makurow asked as he crouched down to Sibious’ height. Even though Makurow is crouching, he is still taller than Zip. Zip was never jealous of Makurow’s giant size.

“Well what I'm making right now is something to make the console.” Zip began to bend the rod against the rock, giving it a ‘7’ shape. “This is my hammer.” Taking the rod and placing it through a cylinder he was holding onto. The ‘7’ shaped rod fit perfectly through a cut in the cylinder. Then as he held the two pieces in place, he poured water over them from a bucket beside him.

“How did you bend that rod so easily?” Makurow curiously questioned.

“It’s called Heating and Cooling,” Zip explained. Zip turned around and twirled his hammer on its hilt. Makurow then realized Zip has burn spots on his legs.

“How did you ‘heat’ those pieces?” Makurow worriedly asked.

“With these stones.” Zip pulled out four red hot stones from a pouch behind his back. As he held the stones, his hands began to turn red and flames formed on his blue skin.

“Zip watch out they’re burning you!” Makurow exclaimed as he tried to grab the stones out of Zip's hand.

“No worries, they don’t affect me.” Zip pulled his hand away from Makurow then puts all four stones back in the pouch, and patted down any flames on his hand.

Makurow watched as Zip's hand went from fiery red, to plain grey, to his normal soft blue. “Then what are those spots on your legs?”

“Oh these?” Zip assumed, “These are from quick cooling, because I dropped some water on my burnt legs they cooled it too fast for my color to come back, but again don’t worry.” Makurow dropped his worried as he watched Zip pull out a stone and started to deform one end of the hammer. “We have the first part of the console done,” Zip explained, “you can go use it to draw up whatever blueprint you want, but it can’t have more than one print at a time; we are working on a way to increase its memory.”

“I'm guessing its by Wonder?” Makurow asked as he pointed over to the beast hunched over a giant pile of rocks. Zip gave a weak nod as he continued to chip away at the hammer. Makurow wandered over to The Wonderer, pulling out his sword and stabbed it into the ground leaving it there as he continued to walk. Rubbing his hands as he spoke: “Wonder, where’s this ‘console’?”

The Wonderer turned around rapidly, holding two grey rocks in each hand. He put both up against the pillar, examining the similarities of the three. “Peculiar.”

“Did you hear me?” Makurow walked closer to Wonder, hardly understanding what the beast was doing. The Wonderer angrily reeled back and smashed both rocks on the pillar. Scaring Makurow. “What was that for?”

The Wonderer dropped both stones and as they hit the ground they split perfectly in half, and each half rolled to a pile of perfectly separated halves. “Did you do that?” Makurow asked in a frightened stutter.

The Wonderer looked at the pillar, then the two piles of separated rocks, and then to Makurow “No, this thing did it,” The Wonderer whispered as he pointed to the pillar.

Makurow noticed the pillar had a mark on it where Wonderer has struck it with rocks. The beast follows Makurow’s eyes to the mark, and then proceeded to scratch off the dirt with his long, sharp, green claws. Like the wall was painted, the underneath was unharmed, the pillar stood strong. “So its invincible?”

Makurow looked back at his sword standing in the ground and Makurow remembered when Thresh took a swing at the statue and the statue stood strong. Makurow brushed off the subject and asked Wonderer again: “Where is this ‘console’.”

Like a primal ape, The Wonderer hobbled over to a perfectly square rock with a right triangular object on top. “That’s it?” Makurow questioned, “That thing is pathetically small, how am I going to draw schematics?”

The Wonderer angrily set the object upright on the ground, pressed randomly on each side, steps back, and opened his arms wide in a ‘ta-da’ stance. Nothing happened and Makurow placed his hands on his hips in disappointment. The Wonderer put up a finger to signal Makurow to wait, and then he pressed randomly on the object, and stood back again.

Makurow watched as the object started to vibrate and light up profusely. In seconds the air around the object light up and drew out panels in mid-air. “Whoa,” Makurow exclaimed.

“Impressive, right?” Wonder bragged. The Wonderer hobbled over to Makurow’s side and looked up high to his face, took a big, long breath and asked, “Do you believe in life after death?” The beast noticed Makurow’s scared and confused look and proceeded to explain himself, “Alright, so we caught you up on what we know about this place; and there is so much for us to learn, and we might have put together that this place might be somewhere people go after death.” Makurow gave a stronger confused look. “And-and a couple of months ago Zip had a vision of someone’s life, from start to finish, and he thought it might be his own life.” Makurow began to ignore Wonder and decided to play with the floating panel connected to the console. Wonder quickly moved into the background of Makurow’s vision to further explain himself. “We didn’t want to tell you this because it was so close to Thresh’s disappearance.” Makurow’s brows grew heavy and Wonder franticly continued to talk. “But-but-but, in Zip's vision he was this _failed_ engineer that worked to make robots that were at the top of his time.”

“You said ‘failed engineer’?” Makurow asked, “Why ‘failed’?”

“Because, he couldn’t make tremendous robots without the help of his genius master.” Wonderer watches as Makurow’s eyes widen and light up. “And we think that _genius master_ might be you.”

Makurow quickly closed the console and turned around to approach Zip. Wonderer, who is already meters behind Makurow, grabbed a strap lying beside the console and attached the two together, and tied it around his body. Makurow reached for his sword, but as he was finger length away a coat of darkness covered the world instantly.

Makurow recoiled back as he tried to figure out the state he was in. He tried reaching for the sword but was nowhere to be found.

Makurow walked around like a child in the dark, arms reached out far and head tilted. Walking around trying to find anything he can. He called out to his companions, “Zip? Wonder?” Walking around aimlessly in the power of darkness.

Three strikes hit Makurow, two on his chest and one on his left leg. Crippling him and puncturing his body. He dropped to the ground, grabbing his leg in pain. After seconds of stiffly grabbing his leg, he tried to crawl.

Helplessly trying to scatter away from the invisible danger. He moved just to get away from something that is somewhere around him, lurking in the dark. Makurow rolled over and a sharp pain attacks his chest, causing him to wrap himself in his arms and rocking back and forth on the ground.

A growl was heard near Makurow, a fierce, suffering growl. Makurow peered his heard like a meerkat from his shielding arms, to search for the sound in the infinite dark. The growl continues, and grew louder. NO! Closer. A roar. Makurow pinpointed the direction of the sound and slowly scooted away from it. Making sure he didn't make a noise to alert the nearby danger, he looked for an escape, but there is nothing to be found in this pitch.

When the growl died and Makurow thought he was safe where he was, claws quickly grab Makurow by the shoulders and dragged him fast across the ground. Makurow struggled, kicking the air, trying to pry the sharp claws from his nape, and yelling, “Get off me you monster!” To Makurow’s surprise the monster replied, it replied whispering.

“Shhh, no worries it’s me,” The familiar voice of the Wonderer appeared. “Do not make another word it will hear us,” Wonderer informed. Makurow silent, but still struggling, and his heart was beating faster than lightning and his breath fast. “The darkness’ legion is here, it caught us off guard,” Wonder whispered.

Makurow grabbed Wonderer’s arm, “How did you find me?”

Makurow felt Wonderer’s grip loosen. “I can see in the dark.” Makurow could feel Wonderer’s energy focus into the void.

“Where’s Zip?” Makurow’s curiosity was concerned for others.

Makurow noticed Wonderer’s grip loosened and his attention was drawn outward into the void; Makurow could identify that he was staring off somewhere, but where?

Both Makurow and Wonder heard a noise, Wonder's gripped Makurow’s shoulder and his waist. Makurow could feel Wonder's cold breath on his back as he crouched down beside Makurow. “What was that?” Makurow questioned as he sensed that the sound they heard was nothing like what they heard before.

A roar came closer than before, and Makurow jumped at how close it had come. Makurow moved away from the direction he suspected that the roar had come from, but as he moved his leg he felt a sudden stop and it jolted with pain. Clutching his leg, he moved his hand lower to feel what has been causing him to suffer. Makurow moved his hand down to his knee and he bumped into a large, sharp spike. So sharp that it cuts Makurow’s hand as he barely touched it.

He quickly grabbed his hand, and he felt over where he got cut. The cut had gone far through his skin. A giant gnash is left hand beside his knuckle on the joint of his finger. Makurow felt deep in the cut, he went until he touched the bone. He felt around inside his large finger. His body was soft and dry. His finger being dry on the inside surprises Makurow.

Makurow eyes narrowed as light shun from the cut in his hand. It became so bright he couldn't look any longer, afraid he would blind himself. He slowly peeked to check on his hand, he looked for the cut he just felt but it seemed to have disappeared, but his hand still shone bright. “Do you see this?” Makurow moved his hand over his head to show The Wonderer. He waited for a response but Wonderer didn't reply. Wonderer was gone, and Makurow realized there had been a long time where Wonderer had been absent.

Makurow popped his head like a meerkat, searching for a friend. Makurow only has the sense of hearing to guide him, but all he heard is his heavy breathing, heart beating. Makurow grabbed his leg to move it over gently, so that he could stand. Makurow struggled to get up, every movement he could feel his leg jabbing with pain. Makurow felt the blade like object, dance with his leg bone. Synchronized with each bone movement, wiggling blade caused the momentum to vibrate the bone.

After Makurow struggled; Makurow stood up tall, against the weight of the blade, but Makurow felt nearly recovered. The ominous air purged around Makurow. A creature circled Makurow in the dark. Makurow no longer cared if he was hidden from the invisible threat. “Fight me,” his teeth chattered. “FIGHT ME!”

Makurow heard a howl came from in front of him. “I'm not afraid of you.” The sounds of claws grabbed and pushed the ground. The scratching of nails on the hard ground. Makurow closed his eyes to visualize his enemy. its two long claws stood out. its small figure was being shadowed by its front legs. its hind legs were being dragged behind; its long, limp hind legs. its growls were like pythons’ hisses. Makurow opened his eyes. A bright light shined off the monsters’ body. Confirming Makurow’s predictions and then some. The tiny beast sat angry in front of Makurow, kicking the dirt up like a bull. The creature patiently crawled towards Makurow.

The light shined off of the beast’s dark, soft skin. Makurow noticed his own leg was shining something fierce, and a sword stuck out of him as well, it was his own sword. Makurow excitedly grabbed the sword by hilt and ripped it from his leg. Makurow drew the sword to his side and heroically planted his feet on the ground. The light followed his sword and Makurow stared down the beast.

The beast eyes sharpen, growl weaken, and his movement became faster. The beast started galloping toward Makurow, and Makurow was ready to defend. The monster leaped at him and he brought his sword above his head to slash, and slash he did. Cutting through the tiny animal like butter. Right through its front legs, immobilizing it. Makurow twirled the sword around his fingers, reversing the sword in his hand. Kneeling down, he lifted his sword to stab it into the long fanged head.

Makurow watched as the poor animal struggled and slowly died. Makurow watched as black goo oozes from every hole in his body, every hole new and old. The same black goo that seeped from the black trees and the Hand. The monster melted into goo, burned, sizzled, and evaporated into the darkness.

Makurow’s planted sword glowed bright and it emits strong light. The light eats away at the darkness, revealing the safety of the sun's light.

Makurow stood up, pulling the sword from the ground and absorbed the scenery around him. Makurow stood in an unrecognizable place. Lush greens surrounded him. He stood in a circle of dirt and rocks, in the middle of stomach high grass. Makurow gripped his sword tight and looked around for any knowledge of the surrounding area. Makurow attained his attention to the giant hole in his leg and the large cut on his hand. Makurow looks at his sword, the very dull, very large, very heavy sword, which just recently was able to fly through the air like a feather and cut through a monster with ease. That the fact now that the sword was not like it was, and now it was dull, shining.

  *******

I hold on tighter to the console wrapped around my body as the light fades. One thing is certain to me; this is an attack from the darkness. An assault. The darkness is weaker in the light, but shall use up most of its power to keep the world dark. We shouldn’t be defeated here, we have the power of light, and speaking of which I must find Makurow.

My eyes take time to focus in the dark, I am a nocturnal beast, which makes me great for guarding at sun down. We haven’t been attacked recently, not since Makurow had walked up to the dark forest; If only I can find Makurow; and that was a couple of months ago. The darkness is stronger than I thought, it is even affecting my vision; I can only see a few meters in front of me.

 I hold on tighter to the strap; we don’t know what the darkness is after. Are they attacking us because they know we have gained knowledge and have advanced from these few days? The darkness will always look for balance, but I didn’t think we were going too fast. I suppose the fact I am carrying a Cube of technology that is far from our evolution, but when the Architects come I'm sure we will be far behind their knowledge, and they should be coming any day now.

As I walk I listen for the sounds of footsteps and try to distinguish them from the three of us. I have long claws that scratch the ground while my hind legs skid sometimes of the ground below me. Makurow stomps when he walks and that usually annoys me, but it’s easy to point out from Zip's soft feet. it's a good thing I'm listening to footsteps because my vision is so obscured from the dark that I didn’t notice that I was walking behind someone until I was right behind ‘em.

It surprises me how close I have gotten to someone without noticing, maybe even startled me when I was so close that I could press my hand against their back, and I did. From the way that the person moved it was clear to me that it was zip. His up tall look with his narrowly bent legs, and the fact that he was around my size, I knew it was him.

As I press my hand on his shoulders, Zip appeared different to me; he spun quicker than light, throwing up his hammer with the same arm my hand was on, putting me off balance and sending me to the ground. I knew Zip wouldn’t hesitate to bring that hammer down and I knew it was certain that he would hit me. Well he would have struck me if he could see me, instead he dropped the hammer as quick as he could, smashing the ground beside me. His body dropped to my level and I could see into Sibious’ eyes. He was frightened, and I’ve never seen Sibious frightened. He has always been calm and collected and always knew what he was doing, but for a fact, this attack was not planned for. I knew I had to stop him. I could see him trying to franticly focus in the dark, and his breath was colder than ice. I got up and scurried away from him, but in the first step I took, I scratched a rock with my claws. Zip heard it and snapped his head to my location. He started approaching me, bringing the hammer over his right shoulder. I knew this was my last chance to stop him because he had surly cornered me, but I could not speak, for Zip was fast, faster than I could speak a word, so I must use action.

My mere flesh and bones was no match for his vicious club, but I have sharp strong bones pointing out from my shoulders that I could use to pin Zip down with, it would not give him a chance to strike. So I crouched back and leaped at Zip, throwing my arms behind me to position my shoulder blades. I swiftly hooked underneath Zip's arms, propelled him to the ground and pinning him there. As I recoiled from the impact, I stared Zip in the eyes, he was in panic to vow oath to life. Sibious is a strong character, he could not be so miserably defeated, not by me, but it was his weakness that over-cumbered him, his lack of preparation. I watched as he wasn’t ready to give up, and I could finish him off, but I didn’t because that would have been foolish in the current moment, but instead while he flailed around like a fish out of water I softly spoke to him. He instantly recognized my voice and let out a relieving sigh. “why’d you have to scare me like that?” he questioned.

“I’m sorry,” I say, “It is almost impossible to be faster than your swinging arm, not even match it.”

Zip drops his body to relax and as the lightning settles, I peer into the darkness. I was so focused on stopping Zip that I didn’t realize we were in the presence of something else. Eyes glow in the distance, body absent. its body is not invisible but rather not present. As the eyes approach, lines grow from it. Drawing in mid-air. Like an artist forging a painting, but it’s not in visioning a new painting; its copying a beloved mural. And I'm the mural.

I back up in awe, and Zip sits up to observe the darkness. The Lingering eyes perfect my figure; every edge sharp and fierce, eyes point like they’re devils. Claws longer than swords and body big and strong; Am I really that scary. As the last drop of paint finishes the copy, the fraud scrambles to escape my sight.

“You think you can get away with this!” I yell as my body grows angry.

“Get away with what?” Zip concerned, “who are you yelling at?”

Without thought I leap at the eyes, but they have curved away in the dark, I chase every sound and light. The path leads me to an exciting encounter, my body double has found Makurow, and so has I. The monster is slowly cat walking towards Makurow. The monstrosity tried to prove its power to Makurow through its growls. You think you can show up and take over, well get ready to be proven wrong. Makurow’s eyes lit up as he scans the darkness; no worries I got this. One leap, I land in-between Makurow and the imposter. I breathe in and release the power I held inside me, whipping my arm up, digging my claws in and through the beast. I observe the art I renewed on the portrait bestowed upon me. The beast splits in two, down the middle and, perfect like the stones I have split. Each piece falls to the ground. Black goo oozes from the hollow shell of a carcass.

I giggle as I imagined this to be harder than it was. I turn around to approach Makurow, just as I hear the ooze sizzling behind me and I could feel a presence lurking behind me. Two presences. Two oversized bodies overshadowing me, and they growl. They know they now have the upper hand. Makurow’s eyes pop out of his head as he worries about what lays in the dark. Without hesitation I dash towards Makurow, clawing his shoulders and dragging him miles across the ground, the jagged, green ground. As I face his eyes I realize I haven’t made a real appropriate appearance. I pull him behind a boulder and whisper softly in his ear; this has not been the first time he has mistaken me for someone, or something, else.

I peer over the boulder to see if we were followed by the beasts, but my eyes cannot see a couple of feet in front of me. As I explain to Makurow what has happened, he spoke words I wasn’t expected to hear. I had left Zip out in the open and he won’t know what’s happening till it hits him, and he still thinks I'm near him, so when these monsters find him, I cannot be held responsible for his death. Before I knew it I was miles away from Makurow, my brain took over and threw me towards Zip's last known location. Hopefully not the last.


	5. Joker

Makurow took in the lay of the land, he stood in the middle of a huge ditch, and hills surround the entire land. And the land was covered with grass, except where he stood now. The ground below him was hard, and burnt.

Makurow stepped into the grass, his big feet push down the grass creating a path behind him. He held his sword to his side. He headed for the nearest hill. When he approached the top, a blight caught his eye. Zooming off into the distance. Makurow jogged towards it, he began to run when he noticed it was traveling faster away from him. Chasing a little ball of light, zipping around a tree, around a rock, through some grass splitting a path for Makurow to dash through.

He stumbled over some logs and over a hill and he realized that the orb has brought him back to the ditch, Makurow stood and observed the orb. It crossed over where Makurow had previously made a path, and stopped in the middle, the spot where the ground was hard and the soil was burnt.

Makurow watched as it floated there calmly. Makurow slowly stepped forward into the high grass, and instantly the orb let out a burst of wind, blowing back Makurow and flattening the grass. Makurow stumbled as he tried to gain his balance against the endless wind. The grass dissolve beneath his feet, and the ground burned. Fire engulfed him, not burning, but wrapping him up like a blanket. He hopelessly watched as rocks converge together, pulling from the ground and leveling everything around him. The rocks cover the ball of light and snowball into a giant meteor, it spanned far enough for Makurow to touch it, and when he reaches out for it, it flew above the ground higher and higher and higher.

The flames unwrap Makurow and he fell over. He crawled towards the center point and rolled over to stare at the meteor traveling away from him. It became a small dot in the sky and Makurow stared at its beauty. _Where is it going_? he thought. The harmless, small ball turned into a giant scary boulder, then back to a small harmless dot in the sky. Makurow laid in disbelief, and now something didn't feel right, the dot seemed to become bigger again. its size began to grow at an alarming rate. _it’s_ _coming back!_ Makurow quickly got up and dove away from the meteor crash, but he was too late, for the meteor had landed right on top of him.

Like a dream, Makurow awoke from a nightmare. What did he just witness, was that a vision or was that reality. Something startled Makurow and he stood up quickly, bumping his head on extruded stone, sending him back to the ground and rolling on the floor with his hand in his head.

“Sorry for that,” Zip said prying Makurow’s arms apart and brushing his fingers across Makurow’s forehead, “You seem alright.”

Makurow opened his eyes to see Zip with a giant gash on his cheek, “You don’t.” Makurow slowly sat up.

“Eh, you should have seen what I was fighting,” Zip said putting a smile on his face.

“You got lucky.” The Wonderer circled behind Zip. “Another second and you would have been dead.”

“I did my best Wonder.” Zip's voice deepened and his frustration ensured. “What was I supposed to do? We were caught off guard.”

“We knew this was coming and we didn’t prepare for it!”

“We seem fine if you ask me.”

“Look at me!” The Wonderer yelled. Makurow slanted over to get a good look at Wonder, there was a giant, open wound stretching across his arm and an ominous aura exhausting from it. “Whatever happened is not fine. We don’t know what will happen after this and if will happen the same to you.”

Makurow looked down at his left leg where a hole was present. The holes in his chest had seemed to completely heal with no scars or marks where they last were. The others must have missed the hole in his leg; Makurow childishly covered it with his hand. The hole showed no sign of ominous aura, just like Zip's wound.

Makurow watched as Zip searched Wonderer’s eyes. “Let’s give this time,” Makurow interjected, “If I had known this was coming I would have not taken that time to think to myself…”

“You did enough,” said Zip.

“Don’t give me your pity,” Makurow retaliated, “We will be safer when I finish my robot.” Makurow looked up to the sky; the sun was positioned right by the horizon; I would take a couple hours before night comes. “And I’ll get it done by tonight. If the darkness is strong enough in the dark, they’re probably going to come back.”

“Most definitely”

Wonder and Zip looked at each other worried. “At this time I don’t think _one_ robot will be enough,” The Wonderer insisted.

“Then I’ll do you one better, I’ll make two robots by tonight.”

“Are you sure?” Zip questioned, “You aren’t even close to finishing your first one.”

“No worries; I can build in less than a second; all I have to do is finish the first copy,” Makurow said, looking at the electronic strapped to Wonder's chest, “I will need the console to sketch my ideas down.”

“But I'm not done making the memory chip,” Wonderer said, unbuckling the strap from his body and holding the contraption in his hands.

“Like I said: All I need is one sketch.” Makurow grabbed the console from The Wonderer’s hands. Makurow had recovered on Sibious’ side of the camp, and now he proceeded to his shack on the other.

A silent observer sat over a hill million miles away from the camp. its body was hollow and see-through. its head hung low over its chest and wielded a mighty grin, reaching from cheek to cheek. Teeth white and eyes brightly glowing red. “Makurow,” it whispered, followed by a chuckle accelerating into maniacal laughter.

The observer slowly approached the camp as the loud banging of hammer fell and metal plate clashing, ring all through the valley. “Music to my ears,” it chuckled, placing its hand on the ground. It spun the world on its fingertips, placing itself right at Makurow’s door. It lifted its fist to knock on the door but as he swung it stumbles right through it. The door was unaffected and so is the observer, who stood up straight, or as straight as it could. “Hehe, I'm home!” It exclaimed.

Makurow sat at his workbench with a fully covered robot lying on the table. The observer walked over to Makurow and pulled up an invisible chair, it sat in “The thinker” pose. “Do you know what I think Makurow?” It asked, wiggling its finger at the robot. Makurow was totally unaware of the observer’s presence. It got up and walked into the table, morphing with it and the robot. “I think you are scared,” it said as it began to hover over the hollowed, metal body. “And I know you have done this before.” Makurow sat staring at the robot, as if he was hoping something magical would happened. “It looks like you have done it, in fact,” The floating being exclaimed, “but it seems like time is running out.” The being’s eyes shifted to the sun set. Then it shifted to sit in mid-air looking out the window. “I could help.” its body rotated to face Makurow.

They both sat silently, while the floating being continuously mouthed the word “C’mon” hoping Makurow would get the message.

Then finally: “I have failed them,” Makurow stuttered, feeling the rock in his throat. “What am I going to do now?” Makurow pulled out the console from under the table. He examined it furiously. As he rotated it, the being noticed a button on the side of the contraption. The being enthusiastically pressed it. Makurow was shocked as the console opened and the schematic reveals itself.

“Now would you look at that, huh.” The observers grin grew.

“Everything was perfect,” Makurow complained, “Why didn’t it work?” Once again the being mouthed the word “C’mon”. Makurow dropped his head on the robot. “I wish this would just work.”

“YEEEEES!” the being exclaimed, back flipping in the air. “That’s all you had to say. Was that so hard?” The being floated down and pressed its hands on both Makurow and the robot. The robot sat up, pushing Makurow off it.

“Whoa, what?” Makurow reacted. The robot twisted over and stood up, towering over Makurow. “H-how?” The robot offers its hand to help Makurow up. Makurow accepted cautiously. As Makurow examined the fully living failure. A goofy grin and eyes floated behind it. “What the…”

“HELLLLLLLO!” It zoomed right up to Makurow’s face. Makurow stumbled back crashing into a shelf of metal sheets. The grin floated over to Makurow, but he stood up drawing his sword.

“Who are you?” Makurow insisted an answers.

“I am… wait for it…” it side eyed Makurow. “SNAKE!” Snake preceded to bow its head to Makurow.

“What are you doing here?” Makurow pushed his sword closer to Snake, out of Snake's vision.

“I'm here to help you, of course.” He gleamed, “Well, actually I'm helping you help me.” Snake looked up to see Makurow’s slanted eyebrows as he continues to explain. “I am an entity that grants wishes, and in return I become more alive.” Makurow pushed aside some sheets to step over to his desk, while the robot watched emotionless. “Currently I am just a figment of your imagination; your robot there must think you are crazy.”

“It can’t perceive,” Makurow said lowering his sword cautiously, “It can only process combat data.”

Snake peered into the reflection of himself on the robot’s chrome shell and locked his teeth violently. “What do I look like to you? Am I tall and handsome? You cannot believe what I see myself as.”

“You are just a face.”

“Just a pretty face?!” Snake sneered, “Ah that good enough.” Snake waddled over to the robot. “So what are you going to do with this thing now?”

“We…” Makurow paused, “I now need to test the combat processor.”

“Well that should be something _we_ can do easily,” Snake eagerly promoted, flying through the door effortlessly. Makurow quickly pushed open the door. Snake hovered up in the air outside, staring into the sky. “But if you ask me I would say your time is almost up, you are on a tight schedule.” The horizon glowed orange from the sun setting. “Just wish the robots become finished and there are no worries.”

“I don’t need your magic, genie.” Makurow turned around and headed inside his shack, slamming the door behind him. Snake passed through the door, and a big smile stretched from side to side. “I just need more time.”

“Then just wish for that,” Snake laughed, “Eh?”

“What are you up to?” Makurow interrogated. “What do you want from me?”

“You know exactly what I want.” Anger rises in Snake's voice. “I want to be _alive_. I’m nothing unless _you_ wish for something, anything.”

“Can’t you just get someone else to do it,” Makurow frustrated slammed his fists on the bench. A clarity reached Makurow’s mind and he turned around to point at Snake. “You should ask Wonderer; he has some problems you can help with.”

The shiny robot stood in Snake's place, admiring the back of its hands. “See,” Snake's voice extruded from the bot, “I would if I could, but right now only you can see and help me.” Snake grabbed Makurow by the shoulders, the robots iron grip held tight. “C’mon.” Snake's smile returned, but this time with a bit of concern. “There is nothing to worry about.” Snake's smile began to fade. “Please?”

“Can you leave my robot alone,” Makurow sneered.

“Only if you say the magic words.”

“ _Please_.”

“No I meant wish for it,” Snake chuckled.

“Ugh,” Makurow grunted, “I wish you would just leave…NO!” Makurow spun around reaching out his hand to stop Snake.

“AH-HA-HA!” Snake launched out of the robot, his long green spiky body materialized as he escaped. “You’ve done a great thing today Mr. M.” Snake blasted through the door, this time leaving a giant hole in it. Debris scattered everywhere, grazing off Makurow’s skin.

Makurow in awe, slowly approached the door. He peered his head through the gigantic hole, it stretched from edge to edge and was larger than Makurow’s upper body.

The ghostly being soared away, but not before dropping an unidentified object. The door crumbled at Makurow’s feet, as he walked, the falling object floated from its free fall. A glance off to the distance, the sun finally disappeared and Snake left as well.

Makurow reached his hand out to catch the object. It appeared to be a round object wrapped in cloth. As it became close to Makurow’s, about one hair away from it, the round object slowed to a stop. Mid-air, no impact applied to his finger tip. The air around him thinned, making it harder for Makurow to breath. He jittered as he tried to carefully pick it out of the air. Unwrapping gently, he held out a metal object. Two buttons extruded towards him. The piece of cloth froze in the air as Makurow tried to drop it.

A faint ticking sound alluded Makurow. He pressed the bigger button. The top flipped over, from a screw on the cover, facing him. The sounds of ticking aroused, a timer presented itself. It had already been started, almost reaching the one-minute mark. Makurow stopped it just before, and the air returned to normal. The piece of cloth fell to the ground and spiraled over. Makurow looked down to see the words “Free of charge” written on it.

Makurow barged into his shack and slammed the stopwatch on the table beside the door. The rise of his eyes met the metal shine of the life filled robot. “Combat systems offline,” it called.

“Target all life in the nearest vicinity.” Makurow trailed over to scraps, picking and analyzing each piece.

“Seven targeted.” Makurow head peered, traveling to the door, arms embrace the archway, and looked out to the distance. “Waiting on further instructions,” It discipled.

“Target three,” Makurow ordered, “one short, one beast, and the other is I.”

“Targeting.”

“Set to friendly.” Makurow looked down at the watch. _Seven_ repeated in his head. “Set defensive protocol." Then in a blink of the eye Makurow snatched the watch and opened it. Time would stand still if Makurow would press the timer, but would he trust a gift from a demon?

*******

A woman awoke from a deep sleep. She has recently survived a nuclear explosion, but that’s not what she was awaking from then. An apocalypse surrounded her, every day was a memory gone from a past life almost forgotten. All that remained with her still was her name, Robin Wattson.

“Mrs. Maker?” Her friend called, a French Neurologist who unluckily was caught in the nuclear radiation, but luckily survived. Robin had recovered her from rubble of an institution deep in a city.

Robin unlocked the buckle strapped across her lower abdomen. “Did it work,” Robin huffed and puffed, flopping over her arched chair.

“Ten days.” The Neurologist caught Robin from collapsing to the ground.

“Not even close,” Robin pounded, “we need to get this to a month.” She grabbed a latch above her head pulling down the hatch, closing the pod and encasing the strapped chair. The letters CRYO were spelled out on the front of the hatch.

“We don’t know what will happen if you go any longer,” She exclaimed, “You already worry me with going past five days.”

“Ms. Elshire,” Robin revealed, “We cannot possibly know if we don’t try.” Ms. Elshire reverted from looking into Robin's eyes. “You even told me yourself: ‘blind science can only be done by trial and error.’” Robin imitated with a hard French accent.

Ms. Elshire giggled at Robin's childishness. “Clearly you know the magnitude of such contraption.”

“But the reward overweighs the risk, darling.” Robin's strong, confident voice shadowed Ms. Elshire's soft, troubled voice. Robin moved closer to her companion. “Maybe we can go for thirty days next,” Robin suggested, tripping into Ms. Elshire's arms.

“Maybe you should take a rest and then we can try ten again.” Ms. Elshire opened the laboratory door and the bright sunlight blinded Robin for a second.

When her vision cleared, she peered down to a small town circled by mile high, metal wall. Every house is made out of scrap metal from scrapped cars and salvaged buildings, and wooden posts. Robin hobbled out of the laboratory that was dug into the side of a mountain. The town was pressed up against the mountain. Robin took a step forward and planted her foot straight into a dead shrub. The sound of crumpling and faint cracking, rippled through Robin's body.

The dead branches scratched against her bare left leg. Scars covered her leg like a grotesque painting. It has come to a time where she couldn't put the right story to each scar. The world had been chewing her up since the apocalypse, but she will never let it swallow her.

Ms. Elshire offered her hand to Robin when Ms. Elshire noticed Robin frozen in place, staring at her feet. Robin's eyes drifted to Ms. Elshire's hand, then she noticed Ms. Elshire in a beautiful red dress and high heels. They hooked fingers and Ms. Elshire pulled Robin up to a dance floor suspended in air. The music was rock and it brought Robin five hundred years back, but in a second, Robin stared into Ms. Elshire's eyes and the world crumpled and cracked around them. A snap back to reality and Mrs. Wattson’s eyes began to water.

Robin grabbed Elshire’s long held out hand. Robin's hand wraps rubbed against Elshire's soft but dirty wrists. Ms. Elshire's adored, dirty, ripped lab coat floats with the breeze.

Robin opened the gates to her metal town. An old lady sat by the gate and moved her cane to trip Robin, “Oh sorry dear,” she faintly apologized, “I was hoping you wouldn’t return, or at least you could have come back with some of my drugs.”

“Nice to see you too.” Robin slowly, painfully got up. “And I wish I found something for you.”

“You should really help her with her addiction,” Ms. Elshire whispered to Robin.

“No I was hoping it would kill her sooner,” Robin menaced.

A man leaned against a building with a hammer in his hand and welding goggles around his neck, “How was your vacation Miss Maker?”

“It was fun Mac,” Robin said, “I passed by your old shack on the way back.”

“Oh?” Mac counseled, “Was it still standing?”

“Just how you left it.”

“That’s too bad.” Mac moved off the wall and walked down town.

“I'm sorry that place still gives you bad memories,” Robin apologized as she and Ms. Elshire followed.

“No it's not that,” Mac said as he focused on his feet, “I left a note there last spring for someone and if it was destroyed I would know she was there.”

“Why?”

“If you read that note, you would tear down that place too,” he smirked.

“If what you say is true about said person,” Questioned Ms. Elshire, “wouldn’t your life be in danger.”

“I wouldn’t think so,” Responded Mac.

“Curious.”

Mrs. Wattson proceeded to her workshop to repair a M16 Carbine while Ms. Elshire works on a piece of robotics. Mac leaned on the wall watching patiently. Ms. Elshire reviewed a schematic next to the wires hanging out of a piece she was working on. “Your husband was quiet a genius.” Ms. Elshire said. Mac jaw dropped as if Ms. Elshire has said something unspeakable.

“Um… yes he um… was.” Robin stuttered.

“It’s a shame that his work is being lost to time.”

Mac tried to speak, “Elshire I don’t think-”

“No its fine,” Robin said staring at the gun in front of her, hands at her side. “I just hope his ideas work.”

“Well I'm no robotics expert,” Ms. Elshire continued, still focusing on her work, “but my knowledge in basic science has proven that I can be very flexible.” Ms. Elshire brought down her glasses and lifted up the finished piece, “I think the phrase is Voila.” A flat, metal cylinder with a giant M in scripted on the front and two prong on the back.

Mac picked up a wrench sitting on a table. “What’s the M for? Is it for Mrs. Maker? Are you really that full of yourself?” Mac asked. Robin sat back on her desk with her arms crossed, annoyed.

“No,” Elshire corrected, “It’s actually her husband’s old company.” Robin lobbed a newspaper at Mac. The newspaper had an article on how bankrupt the company had become. Stating it was nearly impossible for it to become so bad since sales were so high, but due to an unknown cause everything had then been sold to a bigger company.

“I'm so sorry,” Mac apologized as Robin angrily grabbed the piece from Ms. Elshire's hands and stormed out the door.

“Who looks like a fool now Mackenzie,” Ms. Elshire rubbed in.

“You knew I was going to ask that,” Mac accused, “what’s wrong with you? Why would you set that up, only to piss her off?”

“The only way to make the project work is for the creator to use emotion,” Elshire smirked, “And the only emotion I saw present was anger.”

“You are crazy.” Mac walked out the door chasing Robin.

With the M piece in Robin’s hands, she stared down at it. Mac reached out for Robin but hesitated as he saw a single tear fall from her face onto the M piece, and her hands gripped the piece so hard that they were shaking vigorously. She slowly looked up to a robot made from scrap metal and rusted screws. Two socket holes were a perfect fit for the prongs on the M piece.

Her hand frighteningly pressed the M piece into the robot, as it clicked in, the robot came to life. The loose metal sang as it moved, clinging and clanging.

Robin began to cry in joy as she gazed upon her glory, she trembled and clasped her hands over her mouth. Mac gently placed his hand on her shoulder but she quickly spun around and stared into Mac's eyes. All she could see was a memory of her husband, and then suddenly joy turned to sadness and fear. Robin ran off as tears flew from her face.

“Please don’t chase after her this time,” Elshire said watching from afar.

Mac looked down and kicked the dirt. “So how is the cryo-pod project going?” He asked quietly, saddened by Robin's leave.

“How do you know about that?” Elshire asked confounded.

“You cannot tell me Robin went outside the wall and she happens to come back looking as good as she left.” Mac said. Elshire's teeth chattered. “And I checked; my shack isn’t standing.” Mac pushed past Elshire, but then stopped. “You can’t tell me she’s actually going to leave us, just when we need her?”

“She has done so much for us,” Elshire rebutted, “all she asked is for us to let her do what she wants for once.”

“Is what she wants is for us to suffer?”

“No!” A sudden power exceeded from Ms. Elshire's voice.

Silence. Then Mac continued to walk.

“You know she sees him in you,” She said, stopping Mac again. Her voice became soft again. “You give her hope and inspiration to do things _he_ wanted her to do” but right as she finishes she realizes how much she’s been used. Now she doesn’t know how to do what _she_ wants to do.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“Because you should know why she hasn't killed you yet.” Elshire turned and walked away leaving Mac in the middle of the room.


	6. Fallout

Makurow stood exhausted in front of _two_ robots, one completely finished while the other was being improved on. The new one sat dead next to the old one. Makurow rolled his head over and stared at his sword. It stood up against the wall next to a hammer and makeshift welder.

Gripping hard on his sword he pointed it to the new robot. _It needs a heart… It needs a heart,_ repeated in his head. He closes his eyes; his hand unsteady. Power filled his body, from his feet to his head. He could feel the tickle in his navel and the pulses in cords on his head.

As the power moved to his sword, his eyes popped open, his surroundings were different. A man stood lifeless and defeated in the center, and a robot lurking behind him, which appeared to look like a simpler version of Makurow’s. The man raised his head and Makurow locked eyes with him. The man held a pocket watch, which has a picture on the inside of the cover and the watch was missing a hand. The picture had a woman, a young, brunette woman. Makurow didn't realize his sword was pointing to the man until the man pushed it aside gently. Eyes in the back of the room caught Makurow’s attention, but they disappear right as he looked directly at them.

A scream so deadly pierced Makurow’s ears, followed by ringing. Makurow head felt like a thousand waves have crashed against him. His body collapsed on the floor, every joint locked on him. His body was taking over itself. His body jerked and jittered, unnaturally his body twisted and his neck snapped back. Basking at the scene in front of him. The man unexpectedly lied dead, and many machines surrounded him. Each with their own unique design.

His body rolled him around, and a sting in his back made him arch his chest. He stared up to a large figure standing above him. Not one of the robots but instead a woman, but not the same woman from the photo. Her short hair gave a clear view of her face but her white clothes reflected light into Makurow’s eyes. She stood staring at Makurow. Makurow paralyzed, unable to move, tried to call out to her, but Makurow’s bottom lips could only quiver. She pulled a metal rod from behind her and hovered it above his neck.

“No one can save us now,” the woman said, quickly glancing at all the machines around her. Clenching the rod hard, she stabbed it down at Makurow. As it punctured his throat his metal pieces crunch against the rod.

She removed the rod from his destroyed neck and rolled Makurow over to his side. Witnessing the crowd of robots marching towards him and the woman. The sting in his back was suddenly removed and he was dropped to his back. His vision faded as the woman’s shadow ducked out of view and rumbles of mechanical footsteps trampled him.

When his vision returned, his body was once again locked in place but this time giving him some movement. He had a clear view of his surroundings. The air around him made him more relaxed, something about the air was much different. Somehow cleaner. There seemed to be restraints on his body; one over his body and one on each wrist and ankles. He was bound to a chair, and he was trapped in a capsule.

Like a puppy in a box, Makurow was terrified. Something about the walls around him caused a recognizable fear inside him, to come out. He struggled to get out of the binds. A breath escaped his mouth, Makurow stared at it, as it stood as fog. Something familiar struck Makurow in a fashion. The air! The air was his breath, and he never seen it before. And in the air his breath was sucked into a crack in the wall. A straight line directly in front of him appeared. its slowly separated the wall in twine. The outside light entered the chamber. The doors screeched open. One of the doors got caught on something from outside and began to bend as it pulled against it. It moved halfway until it started to jitter. Makurow looked past the door. Dust, dirt, and smoke covered the air. Makurow blew the fog away giving him a clear view of the floor; the floor a hundred feet below him. He tried to bury his back against his chair. Something so new about being suspended so high while having no control of his own movement frightened him. No, terrified him. His throat tightened and hands became sweaty.

With the side of his head pressed hard against his chair, a faint cry appeared yonder: “Help me. Help me please!” Makurow pressed harder against the chair. No one could be in a worse position than himself. “Help me,” it called again. A scared voice, of one that was at the verge of death. Makurow couldn’t help to look. He leaned away from the chair. Testing the limits of his body and the restraints. A good distance from the edge gave Makurow a clear view of the ground far below him. Through the smoke and dust, a pile of rubble sat, and some of the rocks were being pushed off. In the pile was the cry. A hand busted from a small gap. Bloody and torn apart.

“Hey!” Makurow called out. A small pause before he called again. “HEY!”

“Oh god,” the voice muttered, “I'm over here.” The hand tried to budge itself loose.

Makurow wiggled in his chair trying to pry himself loose. “Let… me…go!” Then unexpectedly the braces popped open. With relief he rubbed his hands together. They were soft and delicate. Almost too perfect to the touch. He reached to unbuckle the strap over his body. Right as he grabbed the belt, the capsule rocked forward. “No-no-no-no!” the capsule rolled off; free falling. Spiraling in the air, but a short fall. The capsule stopped mid-air throwing Makurow out of it, but the belt catches him.

Dangling face down, closer to the ground than before. “Are you ok Ma’am?” the person under the rubble must of heard Makurow’s scream as he fell. He could see the person from this suspended view. He could feel the tension choking his body, like a blade was pushed up against his chest. The pain in his heart filled tears in his eyes. There was no way he could save himself. Trying to move his body would only result in more pain or potentially falling through the hold.

He drew his attention to the person in the rubble. A perfect light passed through the cracks and lit up her face. Her hair was short and her eyes were a sharp green colour. It seemed that one of her arm was pinned down while the other flailed loose. Makurow could not hear the whimpers from underneath. Something must be wrong. “Hello?” … with no response.

Her hand laid flat over the rubble. “Hey stay with me,” Makurow yelled. The hand twitched. Makurow looked around; a ledge too far to reach and a wall across from it, behind him. Makurow gently grabbed the belt above him; he tried to rotate himself to put his feet against the wall. He stares daringly at the ledge. He would have to reach that ledge as fast as he could, as he could feel the belt and the pod slipping. He pressed his feet flat against the dirty brick wall. He compressed his legs and began to push off, but the pod jerked at his weight. Makurow slips through the belt, his sweaty hands repeatedly grabbed at the belt. He slowed down his fall until the belt stopped under his chest, being held under his breast. His legs dangled mid-air, and his shoulders pressed up at his ears.

“Are you ok ma…” the woman in the rubble asked weakly.

“Hey d-don’t worry about me.” Makurow swallowed a lump in his throat. “Once I get down from here, I will get you out of there.” Makurow gained strength knowing he must put someone’s life before his.

“My name is...” Makurow couldn’t make out what she said as he swung on the belt.

“Sorry?” He asked.

“… Elshire…” Makurow could only make out the word ‘Elshire’ from her muffled voice.

“Alright Elshire tell me a bit about yourself.” Makurow tried to make talk to keep a living connection between them.

“Um… I think my legs are broken,” she said confused.

“No,” Makurow rejected, slowly swinging closer to the wall, “Like what do you?”

“Well I…uh.” Makurow could hear her pain from sixty feet above. “I _used_ to be a neurologist.”

“What is a neurologist doing over here?” It seemed like Makurow lips were moving by themselves, saying words against Makurow's will.

“Running some… errands,” Elshire said suspiciously.

“Well this is an odd place to run some ordinary errands,” Makurow said, reaching higher on the belt. “City center is about a mile from here, it's suspicious that you would be down here.”

Makurow pulled himself up releasing the tension on his chest. If he would lower himself and swing on the belt like a rope it would be a high risk, but the only thing he could do. Dangling between two buildings, Makurow brought his strength together to pull himself back up to power swing himself. He could no longer reach the wall behind him; his survival now rested on his upper body strength. Pulling up, then swung forward, when he swung back he repeated. The belt slowly floated down, Makurow assumed it was his grip but when he glanced up, he saw the belt ripping and slipping from the pod. His fingers graze the bottom of the ledge; he was too low. He would have to launch himself upward next swing. He swung back and pressed against the wall, a small pause against it. The feeling of the hot air surrounds Makurow. Calm, as if the world has paused and Makurow was given a second to himself. His exhale began his last swing. The weight of his legs and the momentum pulled him down as he restlessly pulled himself up. He released his left hand from the belt. The smooth, hard cement meet his fingertips, but the sound of a snap ended it. Makurow slipped from the ledge as the belt he savagely held onto broke early.

Makurow quickly released the belt in his right hand and flung it towards the ledge, but he was too late, as his hand flew under it. His momentum sent his helpless body against the wall under it. The compression of his right shoulder against caused the brick wall to concave. Makurow crashed through the brittle bricks. The remaining bricks crumbled on top of Makurow. He tried to push the rubble off of him but a strict pain locked his right arm in place. Makurow wiggled his body through, squeezing his left arm out of the pile. The pile became heavier as he tried to push through. He grabbed a steady rock and pulled on it. He felt the rocks scrape against his back. Makurow pushed his head out from under his grave. He lied in a pile surrounded by millions bits of debris. A giant crack formed on the ceiling and pieces fell miraculous, one of which smacked against Makurow’s free arm and laid on him overpowering. The weight crushed his arm and Makurow laid broken and buried. Both the roof and Makurow began to give in. whimpers left Makurow’s lips as rocks bury his hopes.

He stared at the rock on his arm, liquid seeped from underneath, red and thick, accompanied by the darkness following.

Pain. Pain all over his body. The weight of a building crushed him. His insides flatten and pain flowed all over his body. The sound of rocks shifting above him was the only think he could sense. Dust and dirt cover his nostrils and eyes. The rubble pushed out bloody breaths from his mouth. He could feel a liquid leave his mouth, it tasted putrid and poisoned.

“You want it to work, right?” A familiar voice spoke. Makurow tried to answer but he coughed out a blast of blood. “Don’t talk,” the voice said, “Just think. Just think about being back with your… contraptions.” Makurow tried to picture his shack, but the pain and taste blocked his mind. “Just think,” the voice repeated, “And then wish you were there.” Through the pain and blood, Makurow could picture a shack, but in the corner a glowing white grin approached his view. The mouth opened wide and its tongue unraveled revealing two bloody eyes rolling off the tip. Almost as if they were held by strings, like a puppet they bounce in mid-air. The blood slowly dripped off the eyes.

The thuds of each drip cleared Makurow’s view. The rock star sized tongue, swirled around the mouth licking away the void surrounding it. Green skin began to form, an unfamiliar tone of green. A head began to appear, like a dragon’s head in size, with a large chin and wide centered eyes. Hands move from the shadow behind it, locking onto the head and placing it upon the body that followed. Spikes flowed from the body, covering the whole backside and shoulders. The body floated, no legs just a giant tail. Almost like a childhood ghost image but more gruesome.

“Makurow,” the ghost said, “this is all a hallucination. You are back in your shed. This place you are sitting in is the light taking over your body.” The ghost picked up the floating eyes and placed them in his empty eye sockets. “You don’t recognize me because your mind is flooded. I am Snake, but you’ve probably have guessed that by now. Now I can get you out of this, but you have to listen to me.” The sound of rocks shuffling above Makurow drew his attention. “We don’t have much time. Do what I say!” light punctured Makurow’s eyelids breaking his concentration. “NO! Don’t open your eyes, you stu-”

Makurow squinted. Slowly he opened his eyes. Holes in the rocks around him revealed the outside light. Fingers pressed over the holes. _What is out there?_ Makurow thought to himself. The fingers slid through the holes around a boulder resting over Makurow’s arm. At this point he could no longer feel it. The fingers grabbed onto the rock and haul it off Makurow. He slowly arched his neck back. A beautiful woman stood above him, face soft and loving. “I haven’t truly introduced myself,” she said, dropping the rubble beside her. “The names Robin Wattson.” Her blue eyes glistened in the dirty smoke. “And I told you I was getting you out of here miss.”   Robin reached out to Makurow. Wraps formed over Robin’s hands and bruises appeared on her hands as they passed through light extruding through the ceiling. Makurow lifted his arm out from his side and quickly grabbed Robin’s hand.

“I’ve got you Elshire.” Robin’s words pierced through Makurow’s heart. His arm twisted on itself, his mouth popped open and the sounds of wind left his mouth. As if something was escaping from inside him and crushing his heart in the process, his soul slipped from his teeth.

*******

That’s when I come in. Stumbling through a broken door way. Makurow stood weak in the middle of the room, with his sword tight in his hand pointing vigorously at his robot. His whole body was shaking, shivering. Magnificently two robots stood ready and prepared for the approaching night. He slowly turned to face me. The side of his face drooped and his arm stayed extended. Both bots walked up beside him, one was covered in metal while the other was bare circuits and metal rods.

I saw Makurow reconnect to himself then collapse into one of the robot’s arms. It gently placed him on the floor. The bare robot admired its hands, as it pushed out its hand skin grew all over its body. A big and gremlin looking monster took over the robotic look.

“It’s here!” Zip panted in the doorway, I watched as the darkness creeped over Zip's shoulders.

I stumbled outside and I saw it; the thing that haunt me. Dark, sharp, red eyes, accompanied by a fraud on four legs. The darkness followed it, like it was controlled by it. The dark caused the ground to pick and pull at my claws, trying to pull me through the ground. The automated metal rushed past me, making a football b-line towards the menace.

The gremlin looking bot ran up beside it, reaching for the back of its neck. The monster ducked under and shuffled away from it. The monster moved like a hungry tiger, stepping back while studying its prey, but at the same time shifting to get ready to act to win the fight for its pleasure.

The gremlin threw a punch right at the monster stumbling forward. The monster slid back dodging the fierce jab, then, like a flash in the dark, dashed right past the gremlin scratching the machine in the stomach. The monster staggered our robot. While the monster was gathering itself, the other robot, who was previously circling the fight, grabbed the monster by the leg and hammered it into the ground. It bounced off the dirt. The metal robot lifted his foot over the monster’s neck as it laid screeching in pain. The machine forced his heel down under its jaw. Enough force to crush one's bones, but on the ground below the monster vanished. A silent *pop* out of existence. Our robot studied below its foot, confused as to where the monster had escaped to. The darkness grew, moving over closer to me and the shack.

I felt a shove against my chest sending me backwards against the cold, soft rock wall of the shack. My claws pressed hard against the wall as my back slid roughly down it. The gremlin looking robot sprang to its feet to run to my aid grabbing me as gently as it could by my shoulders and lifting me to my feet. He had left the full metal robot in the dark, and I saw, in the pitch black, a fog surrounded the robot and consuming it.

The gremlin moved me into the shack redirecting my view away from its robotic brethren, and towards the efforts of Sibious fighting off a bigger version of the menace that was outside. It stood towering over Zip, like a bear on its hind legs. Zip, with only a makeshift welding torch in his hand, franticly tuning the nobs, Makurow laid knocked out in the corner near us, but seemed untouched like I had left him. Finally turning on the torch, Zip quickly aimed the nose to burn a hole in the monster’s arm. its cry sounded tired and wimpy. The monster retaliated by slashing at Zip sending him directly into the floor. I began to move into the shack but the gremlin cut me off, moving behind the monster to surprise it, but to no effort, the monster quickly turned backhanding the gremlin in the head, sending him towards the wall beside ‘em, head first. its head cracked open against the wall, breaking circuits and wires, while they escaped its head like organs in a gutted bird.

The Monster shot his head in my direction and gave me a look of intimidation; I was not going to be afraid of a bad rendition of myself.

*******

Makurow’s soul wrapped around his arm and gathered over his hand, forming a ball. He felt his body crushing inside him. A woman appeared in the ball, up close like she was admiring herself in a mirror. It wasn’t Robin but some different, the woman from the beginning of this nightmare perhaps. The woman gave Makurow a blow kiss and the ball became absorbed in Makurow’s sword, back in his hand.

Standing in middle of the room was the monster. Makurow regained conscious while lying in the corner. The monster, ignoring Makurow, walked towards the door. Makurow moved without thinking, an involuntary action, he threw himself at the monster. With his sword in his hand he back hand slashed up through the monster, perfectly cutting it in two. The recoil of his swing hit the roof of the shack and the sword became stuck. The monster stumbled before crashing to the ground. Goo seeped out the cut, and soaked into the floorboards. Its body melted and bubbled away.

Makurow stayed tugging at his sword in the ceiling. A sobbing lied in the corner, Wonderer’s cries. Makurow ripped the sword out and it hit his side cutting his leg with its immensely sharp edge. Wonderer’s body hunched over, shoulder shivering. Makurow approached his backside, a blue body lied in Wonder's arms, Zip. _What has happened here_ , Makurow thought as he looked around him. One of his robots was piled against a wall, ripped apart like a pillow, and his other robot was nowhere to be found and now, right in front of him was his friend sat battered and beat up cradling his other dead friend. He peered at his sword, it shone like a lamp in the night, glowing with power. With the side of his sword he opened The Wonderer’s arms. A giant gash stretched across Zip’s chest leaving it wide open. Makurow could see the inside of Zip, alien to himself. Everything was soft, and wet with red liquid. Makurow aimed his sword at Zip. Makurow wasn't ready to go through the same nightmare he just went through but it was worth healing his friend.

As he clenched the hilt of his sword, the world crumbled around him once again. Flashing colours blind him. The ground flattened and sounds wrestle in his ears. The sounds twisted and turned in his head, until a beat formed. A fast loud thump under the vast high and low music notes. Makurow could feel the rhythm in his body and could feel his toes wiggling to the music.

The floor flashed different colored lights and many bodies surrounded Makurow. They quickly surrounded Makurow and pressed up against him, moving around like primates. Makurow body tensed, with his arms above the crowd he moved across the floor, some of the bodies moved generously but others stayed in his way causing him to shove through them impatiently. The heads turned to give him a dead look. No face was recognizable, their faces were flat and elongated. Makurow could feel the chills of each blank eye following him as he moved away from their crowd.

A man sat across the room and caught Makurow’s eyes with his inviting aura and somewhat familiarity. Up in a stool, hunched over with his hands over his knees. Five stools were lined up against a counter with three of them occupied, a barista stood behind the counter serving drinks to people standing, with one clearly over his limit, and the other two customers sat in the stools on the far right, shoulder to shoulder. The man sat three stools over, sitting patiently smiling.

Makurow pulled up a seat beside him and sat facing the wall behind the counter. He could feel the awkwardness from the man staring into the side of his face. There was nothing Makurow could say to this man but something about him brought Makurow to this place. “Who are you?” Makurow asked, still looking towards the wall.

The man unexpectedly laughed. “Is it too dark in here? Or did you have a little too much to drink?”

“You are always a joker Mac.” Makurow’s lip moved by themselves again and his voice was vomited out of his throat. It seemed like every vision Makurow lived through didn't let him control what he said at times.

“I’m not going to let a little doomsday melt my optimism.”

Makurow forced a grin upon himself. “What are we going to do?” Makurow said as he felt a load of feelings weighing him down. Mac lost his smile and stared at a hose behind the counter.

“We wait,” he desperately said, moving his empty glass under the hose to steal himself a free drink as the bartender was looking the other way. “We wait for your husband; he’ll know what to do, right?”

The word ‘Makurow’ pounded in Makurow’s head. Makurow hand moved gently on top the counter. Just then Makurow realized what had been going on, he had been having hid visions going through other people’s eyes. He was never in control; it had all been in someone else’s head. Makurow had been staring at a television screen thinking he was the protagonist, but alas he was just a spectator. _Whose head am I sitting in_ , he thought to himself.

After wrapping his head around the situation, Makurow reached over and grabbed the full cup out of Mac’s hands. “Don’t steal,” Makurow said and then downed the beer. Mac began to laugh and his smile returned. The taste of liquor ancient to Makurow choked him out. He coughed after passing the halfway mark, drawing the cup away from his mouth.

“Look at this,” Mac said lifting his hand in front of him. A small green lizard climbed in between his fingers.

“Where did that come from,” choked Makurow.

“I don’t know,” Mac smiled, “it just showed up, it's kind of cute.” The lizard spiraled around his fingers in and out of each dip.

Makurow grabbed Mac wrist, pulling his hand closer to his face. The lizard climbed up on top of Mac’s pointer finger. The lizard was smaller than Mac’s pinky. As it faced Makurow the lizard stared, slanting its head at Makurow. Blinking its eyes one at a time. “Yeah it is,” Makurow finally responded amused by the reptile.

Makurow looked up at Mac. Cracks form on his face, eroding his face. Makurow stood up, backing up from Mac. “Isn’t it- Isn’t it- Isn’t it- Isn’t it.” Mac repeated, like a broken record.

Makurow felt in control once again. “I guess this is the end of this.” Makurow took another step back before the world crumbled around him and he was sent into the darkness.

Makurow opened his eyes and appears in the middle of the Greyland. Zip stood on the border in front of the statue. Light shone all around Makurow, burrowing through cracks in the ground, like northern lights at his feet. Whispers lay on the tips of colored lights. Lights dance around Makurow, jumping around him. Makurow moved his hands over the light. Shadow manipulating the light by floating his waving fingers over the light.

“What’s going on?” The Wonderer asked, on all fours behind Makurow. “You have been in and out of it recently.”

“You’ve noticed?”

“It’s hard not to.” Wonder dug his claws into the ground, creating openings for the light to escape. “Zip tells me the light fixes everything.” Makurow crouched down and moved his fingers over the cracks. “It’s like a cultist religion to him. He's been a little off recently, ever since we heard you arrived. He's had this mentality that you could save everything.”

“How did you find us?” Makurow asked digging his fingers deep into the cracks.

“Do you not remember? You were statues sitting at each point. You were north and Thresh was one of the equators.” Wonder crawled around to Makurow’s front.

“What do you mean? How many points are there?” Makurow could feel a gap under the ground.

“Six.”

Makurow pulled his hand from the ground and looked Wonderer right in his eyes. “There’s more?!”


	7. turmoil

As Makurow stepped off the Greyland, the light behind him faded. “You shouldn’t go,” The Wonderer said running behind him.

“I need to know!”

“We can go tomorrow; it's almost night, you won’t be able to come back.” Wonder pleaded.

“I’ve dealt with the darkness before.”

“We know you can come back, but when you do Zip won’t allow it.” Wonderer stopped Makurow. “He's scared. He has seen what the darkness can do; he has been blaming the darkness for what happened to Thresh.”

Makurow’s heart was beating a thousand times over. He summoned his sword beside him, through the air, crafted by light. His hands tightly wrapped around the swords handle. His mind focused power from his body to the sword, creating a glow and sharpening the edges. “He doesn’t want the thing that can protect us to be gone.” Makurow let go of his sword letting it evaporate in the air. After a moment of silence Makurow trailed off into the horizon. Wonderer’s fangs chattered. Makurow could hear the name ‘Thresh’ repeat in his head. Across the Greyland stood Zip waiting patiently for his friends to return, fragile as he realized one may not return.

*******

“It’s going to be a shame when he finds out he's not coming back,” Theo says.

“But what if it didn’t matter if he returned?” I ask.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean what if he finds something on his way,” I explain lightly.

“Yeah!” Theo says excitedly, “could he find a person that could help him?”

“Or how about he finds something about himself,” I brainstorm.

Theodor erases a sentence written down. We stare at the blank line. ‘M__ lo_ks through t_e ___ and’ faintly appears when I focus on it.

“What if he finds someone evil? We’ll have to give him a weapon or he's defenseless.”

“He doesn’t always need a weapon.” I grab the pencil from Theo’s hands. ‘through the shadows, his worst nightmare appears.’ My chicken scratch writing contrasts Theo’s perfect writing.

“Give him a gun,” Theo nervously says as I write away.

“He will use the skills he learned.”

“He hasn't learned any skills without a weapon.” I could hear the sound of Theodor chomping away at his fingernails.

“Then he will learn some now.”

*******

_Who was Mac?_ Makurow thought, gripping the rocks in front of him. It had been twenty-four hours since he departed. Luckily the night hadn't come, for Makurow that meant the darkness wouldn't come for another month. He had met with a wall of rocks and boulders stretching across to the horizon decide him and went up five times Makurow’s size. He climbed the wall with no problem, one hand after another, leading his feet. Effortlessly, halfway up, Makurow coiled down and launched himself up to the top. He cheekily landed in a pose. Beyond the wall familiar trees traced a path forward, willows against a swamp. Vines crawled against the rock wall, holding the structure in place. Wrapping a vine around his wrist, clasped in his hand, he drifted himself down. The thorns on the vine scraped against his arm, leaving scratches like a knife would to metal.

Halfway the trees began to brush against him, creeping around his back and ticking his side. A mountain sat across the swamp, but through the swamp Makurow could clearly see spots of darkness, and eyes inhabiting them.

“You don’t want to go that way.” A claw pointed over Makurow’s shoulder. Snake gladly appeared behind Makurow.

Makurow slowly shifted his view to the giant three pronged, gold claw. “You like it,” Snake snickers, “A nice man gave it to me.”

“What are you doing here?” Makurow asked, “I thought I wished to gone?”

“Yes well then someone else wished to be more powerful,” Snake explained retracting his claw to his side. “And I prioritize my latest wish first.”

“Didn’t you make this _someone_ powerful? Making my old wish the latest one?”

“See the problem is,” Snake rambled, “I can only give physical things. But luckily I can foresee what can make one powerful.”

“Oh yeah?” Makurow struggled to unwrap the vine tangled to his arm. “And what’s that?”

“It seems like we are looking for the same thing.” Snake used his claw to gently cut the vine. “I can help you reach it.”

“Why do you need me? Did someone wish for you to help me?”

“Not per say, it just seems like he would like us together.” Snake's smile grew ten sizes as he spoke those words. “It would just be easier for him.”

“Who are you referring t-”

“We better get going or we’ll be late,” Snake exclaimed passing by Makurow.

 

Snake guided Makurow through the swamp, around dangerous spots, “How has it become so dangerous so fast.” The blacken branches shroud dark mist, monster peer into the light for just a moment to take a glance at the passing by. “What do you know about the darkness?” Makurow would ask, leaving his sword tight in his hand afraid that the things around him would jump out and attack.

“Everything,” Snake said monotone, he had seemed to leave behind the ‘jester’ act and stood out more like a normal being.

“Really?” Makurow was surprised by the sound of his voice, it was uncommon for Snake to talk so softly.

“My whole existence is tied to the darkness, it’s my curse,” Snake said like a dying prophet. “I feel for those in my position but while actually containing a heart. While the most ruin our name.” Snake pauses for just a second to catch his breath, then proceeded to talk, cutting off Makurow before he could ask a question. “By ‘most’ I mean the things you see around you. All they have as purpose is to infect those opposing them. Then the others are those who are infected but do not follow those ideas or those who didn’t choose to be how they are but are forced to do things against their will.” Snake looked over his shoulder, directly into Makurow’s eyes. Makurow had been staring at Snake the whole time, not paying attention to his surroundings. His hand had loosened from his hilt. “I know it sounds like the worst thing ever, but I promise you it can get better.”

“So where are you?”

“Where am I?”

“You said there is different positions; are you the mindless creature, infected, or born?”

Snake stumbled on that question. Losing his footing before collapsing. He pushed himself to his side then stared up at Makurow. “All I know is that I don’t have a heart.”

  *******

Theodor had this binder, not one that you would usually carry around school. It was this big red binder, but it was so unusual, if someone saw him with that they would think he was carrying his whole school life from year one to ten. Massive, but it was suspicious because Theo would try to hide it in his arms pressed against his chest, no one could ever not see it and because of that it made me more suspicious than I should be. Knowing Theo, he probably gotten an assignment and went way into it, much more than a teacher would appreciate.

I had approached his backside when he shoved the big binder in his locker and tried to close the door on it, sadly it was too big.

“Theo,” I say, “What’s with the big binder? Was there a science theory you _had_ to figure out?” I tease, almost bursting out laughing in the process.

“No,” he says, narrowing his eyebrows. “This is for us, well mostly for me.”

He slowly opens his locker door and pulled the binder through the tight frame. “What is it then?” I ask, anticipating it to be a colossal joke.

“I call it ‘the Book of Everything’,” he says, opening the binder to a random page. It was filled with pictures and pages filled with sentences. Not a page, or space, left blank. It was almost like a textbook a teacher would give someone, but this one was different. Something about it was amazing. Something about it was grabbing at me. “It is the collections of all our thoughts written and pictures I enjoy,” Theodor says, prancing at his own work. “I say if you open the binder to whatever page you want, a story would be told without having to read the previous page and the ones following.”

I stand marveled at the binder. “How did you get all of this?”

“Well I'm not the one who hates my classes.”

“I don’t _hate_ them.”

“I would always enjoy listen to the teachers,” he continues, ignoring my comment. “Our science teacher told is to…” He paused to stand up straight with his hands in a fist by his chest. “ahem” he cleared his throat. “Do not only bottle your emotions, but also your thoughts and ideas.” Once again Theo mistook a quote as inspiration down the completely wrong path.

I raise a brow. “That sounds like something an English teacher would say.”

“If you paid attention in class you would know it’s actually our science teacher who said that,” he corrects.

“Who would want to read this?”

“That’s is the whole point of this,” he exaggerates, “Everyone would be able to read this and enjoy it somehow.”

I stared at a picture tilted in the plastic layer. “Where’s this picture?” I ask.

“I dunno,” he replied stupidly, “I looked and it and saw something.”

“What did you see exactly?”

“You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words?”

“That’s definitely an English teacher saying.”

“I see a story Tomas,” Theodor says annoyed.

*******

“You should be careful around these parts,” Snake said alluding to the lava below them. They stood the tip of a volcano, flares flew out of the pit past them.

“One of my creations disappeared last night,” Makurow said, “Would you know where he went?”

“When the darkness gets you, you’re good as gone.” Snake wrapped around a boulder, placed over their narrow path. Snake turned his head to follow Makurow proceeding past the rock. Makurow’s foot slid down the side throwing Makurow over the boulder. Snake chuckled. “Look at your foot.” Makurow took a glance at his loose foot. A leg length away from the lava, his foot glowed a fiery orange. Makurow frightened, pulled his leg up and crawled away from the ledge. He grabbed his food with both hands. He could feel the sudden heat flow through his whole body, and in seconds his palms glowed orange as well. “Sometimes the light can also hurt one of themselves,” Sake said passingly, “Especially when it comes from a different source.” Makurow stood up as his body returned to white. “The world is changing Makurow, one day your best ally will be your enemy, and soon you will make friends with your enemy.”

“Are you trying to tell me you are going to betray me?”

“Not for a long time Makurow, I'm going to live off you like a symbiosis relationship.”

“Parasitic?” Makurow asked jokingly.

“A mutually beneficial relationship.”

“So who’s going to betray me?” Makurow moved closer to Snake as they walked.

“I can’t tell you.” Snake hid his laugh. “That would ruin the story.”

Snake led Makurow down the mountain, throughout, avoiding darkness’ mist.

  *******

I had picked up the book Theo made, it is surprisingly good for what he is known for. I started from the beginning, even though the point of the book is to open the book at any point, but I’d rather take it all in, not missing a page at all.

Theo asked me: “What page did you start from?”

I simply replied, the first.

“Why not open the book to a random page?”

I feel like I need to follow a guideline. The flow of life feels better when you know you’ve read everything.

“Then that defeats the point of my book!”

Only for me though; other people can be different. This is how I am.

 

It took half a month to reach the point, over four thousand kilometers away from his base. It was a monolith on the beach beside mountains trailing over six-hundred miles. Luckily darkness didn’t follow and Snake helped make the journey safer. Makurow stood looking up at the monolith. The pillar stood to the sky, but slanted and the formation around it looked as if it fell from the sky.

“So this is where they found him?”

“Yup.”

“So what are we going to do now?”

“Find answers.”

Snake looked up to the sky, staring directly at the sun sitting upon them. “You better hurry; I suspect the darkness is coming in thirteen days.”

“Longer than I need.” Makurow dug in the ground moving dirt away from the stone. While, something caught Snake's eyes.

“You should really not mess with that thing,” Snake shuddered, there was a feeling looming inside Snake's mind. He knew something important that he didn’t want to tell Makurow. “What are you trying to find anyways?”

“Thresh disappeared twice from me,” Makurow explained, “twice from the darkness, and the first time he was brought here, maybe he was brought here a second time.”

“Brought?”

“Yes,” Makurow replied quickly, “a wave of colour reaching to the sky, engulfed us both when the world was completely grey.” Snake stared at the visible moon in the sky. “The Wonderer found me wandering the world alone and Sibious found Thresh here.”

“Hehe,” Snake chuckled, “Brought?! Found?! You do realize you were born by these statues?”

“What?”

“You never lived before Wonder found you, neither did _I_ when we first met,” Snake explained laughingly, “The six points mark the birthing of the _titans._ We are never truly found if people watch our births. Claim you ‘found’ me and you’ll change my mind.”

Makurow stood dumbfounded, his lack of knowledge proved to waste his precious time.

“If you did live before anyone else that would mean you lived for five thousand years, asleep, and you would have to wait that time again for Thresh. But if it doesn't that means Thresh is not going to be here ever again. Don't think you've wasted your time because there is something special about these point; They are filled with powerful light. I imagine if you can tap into it like you did to the Greyland, you could unlock something inside yourself.”

Makurow heeded his advice and stepped near the stone. “But this stone is invincible, how am I to-”

“Is it?” Snake questioned Makurow circling around him, “Have you ever tried _hard_ enough?”

Makurow pulled his sword out and swung against the stone.

*TINK*

Light exploded from the statue out throughout the mountain range. Makurow and Snake felt weakened by the blast. Snake stared off to the mountain peaks where the light jumped over. Snake chucked with his wide smile, he seemed to enjoy the sight of something. Makurow followed his gaze up to the mountains, Darkness loomed over the valley and quickly approached the point, instantly covering the land around Makurow in pitch black night and shoving Makurow against the stone. The statues stone shimmered weak light against Makurow’s body, as well as sharp gleaming eyes floating in the dark, approaching Makurow to kill.

*******

Garth stood guard at the doorway near the castle dour. Garth was an old man; white hair and a beard stretched down his neck and his face filled with scars. He kept his broadsword in both hands around his hips. “We’re not going to let them in!” he instructed to the five men behind him, all restless and weary. Garth lead the group as the an elder while his crew did not have a soul older than twenty-one. One of the youngest approach Garth with a sword and shield shaking in his hands.

“Are you sure we can do this?”

Garth threw the kid over to the other side of the door. “You bet your ass we can!” Garth pulled his sword above his head. The sound of a battering ram against the door startled the few.

The chatter of people outside the door conducting an attack and guiding the battering ram made each soldier shudder. Dimly lit torches surrounded the bunch. Garth placed out his hand, palms out, signaling to wait in the silence of the second. The feet behind the door, shuffling and shifting under the weight of the battering ram, pause in that second.

“CHARGE!” Sounded behind the door.

One of the men foolishly ran up to the door, Garth tried to move to save him but he was too slow as the doors busted open and launched him across the floor, knocking him out instantly.

“GO!” Garth leaded. Men wearing everyday clothes stood out from Garth’s heavily armored boys. The men were the civilians, angry at the tyrant king who stole from the town and threatened to put the town to war. The king has granted Garth with a group of recruits who clearly, sadly did not understand what they were fighting for. Garth, a legend who fought many victories in his life only to fall trying to protect a crooked king, stood in front of the mob holding his sword out in front of him. One of the men in the crowd charged out with a small rapier, as he approached Garth, he jabbed at him. Garth parried to the side. Reversing his sword to take down the man. Cut him right down the shoulder.

Garth stood staring down at the mutilated man. Garth now remembered him. Job, a blacksmith who would supply Garth with all his equipments and in return would pay with rare ores and metals found in his journey. Garth knew what metal Job’s rapier was made with: one of the metals found during a bandit camp raid.

Garth shot his head up to the mob. Every face was familiar and it has become shameful to stand on the other side of their assault. Bakers, shopkeepers, farmers, and even servants charged to, and around Garth, attacking Garth’s soldiers. “Please stop,” he whispered, “they don't know any better.”

An undertaker approached Garth, and he saw. He saw the immense regret in Garth’s eyes. The undertaker bashed Garth's head with the hilt of his dagger.

Crashing to the floor, the kid by the door fought off a group of the mob by himself, stood in full view of Garth's eyes. Cries follow behind Garth. _There is no necessity for anyone to die_ , Garth thought. No matter how resilient the kid was he couldn't beat the mob, and like all the other fighters he fell. A sword cut his arm, then an angry citizen stabbed right through him, Garth couldn't look away.

A baker walked up to Garth's defeated body. Picked him up and placed him against a wall. “You killed Job!” He shouted tearing. “We beloved him!” The baker picked up his sword and swung at Garth.

The castle trembled, throwing the bakers swing off. A huge roar escaped the building. Men ran out from the stairs, hopping over the children's bodies. “He's mounted a hydra!”

Walls crumble down as hydra’s heads push through them. One pushed behind Garth sending him down. Flames fill the room incinerating anything standing. When the heat settled Garth stood up, baffled. Few men run out of the burning building.

Garth turned to the hole in the wall behind him. The hydra backed up, a man in gold stood on one of its many heads. The king didn't care about Garth and his crews wellbeing. _He assumed the worst for us_ , Garth thought. He dropped his broadsword, made from a rare, red metal, lined with gold and engraved with the word ‘trusted’ on the blade side.

Garth leaped out the hole in the wall, onto the scales of the roof of the first floor. Men ran below him trying to escape the hydra. One of its heads faced Garth. A chill ran down Garth's back. Frightened, he ran on the tile roof top. The hydra reaped it head back, swinging it at the bunch. Smashing the ground and the structure ahead of Garth. The roof crumbles below Garth. Garth's momentum threw him into the building. Barreling against rubble.

Garth stared at the sky as the hydra's head lifted. Garth would stay there, for he had given up. There is no way of escaping the king's pet hydra. As well as the guilt of letting any of the things that happened today. It was all his fault. Hundreds of lives lost because of his indecency. And now more would be lost since he had given up.

A man appeared above Garth. Short, old, stubble, slanted eyed man, with hair at his shoulders. A General who tried to lead an assault against the town at the shore, now alone in prison awaiting public execution.

Garth stood to his feet, pacing his recovery. Garth stared into the General’s eyes. Both were frightened for their lives. The General looked down at the key ring at Garth's hip. One of the keys was surly one to the jail cell door. Courageously Garth quickly picked up the ring and searched for the key. It was a common looking one to the other bunch. The sound of a hydras roar stood behind the wall ahead of the jail cell. Garth sped his search. Checking each candidate keys at the lock. By the fourth he was successful. Swinging the door open, Garth and the general dove around the door. The hydra's head swung through the building taking out the jail the two were occupying a second ago.

A path had been cleared for Garth and the General. Clear to the shore where the General’s vessel sat awaiting scrapping. Both sprinted, leaping past rubble and dead townspeople. The hydra spotted the two and busted fire from its bowels, chasing the two with flames. A cliff awaited feet from the sprinters, above clear water. The two jump over broken railing; flames cindering their backs.

Landing in the water, just a few strokes by the boat.

Garth tried to swim to the surface, grabbing the resisting water around him. A hand pressed against his weak chest and pulled up under his armpit. Garth pulled on the heavy armor, prying it from his body. Without the armor, Garth flowed through the water. Emerging through the surface, Garth shook the water off his face. He was met with a rejoiced General. Garth's glistening wet beard reflected off the eyes of the General. Face to face the two swam on the surface of the waves.

The boat swayed in the background. “I have nowhere to go,” the General sputtered softly in a hard eastern accent.

“I do not either,” Garth replied.

The General turned his head to his boat. Garth looked to the cliff above him, he could see the light from fire and hear the sounds of screams. The General swam over to his ship, grabbing onto the ladder on the side. Turning over to the awed escapee, he called for his attention. Garth jerked his body over.

 

The General steered the boat as Garth lowered one of the sails. “My name is Zekeao.” The General said.

“I am Garth.”

*******

Garth observed Kirama’s inverted body. Her see-through white bone, red veins, and sharp bones made up Kirama. Kirama’s blades stuck into the wall behind Garth. Garth stood unafraid of Kirama’s large, scary body. Kirama spoke. The sounds of crowded whispers and muffled screams left her mouth as she twisted and swerved her head. Her hind legs stumbled to balance herself without the front legs. Bladed, pointed, cold swords of bones extruded from her arms and legs taking the place of hands and feet.

“Why aren't you afraid of me?” Questioned Kirama through her spider tongue.

“I've seen too much to be afraid of you.” Garth's voice crawled out of his stone face. Rocks and ores clattered, and lava flowed through Garth's mouth. Lava flowed through his system like blood.

Garth rested his midget left arm on Kirama’s blade in the wall. Stood asymmetrical, staring the beast in the eyes. Kirama fiercely pulled her blades out of the wall. She silenced as she side crawled away.

Garth moved away from the wall, approaching the ape. “Let's go, Zekeao.” Garth insisted, and the ape followed dragging its star mace.


	8. Wilting Flower

Beasts of darkness circled Makurow, but he took to the statue as the lantern in the dark. Not one beast dared to pass into the light; rather they backed up burrowing into the shadows. A wild hiss drew Makurow's attention. Pulling his sword out, aiming it into the endless darkness ahead of him. Wind flew chills against his neck.

Snake slowly floated around the statue, staying feet away from it. “This thing won't stay lit for long,” Snake whispered loudly.

“I'm just gathering my powers.” Makurow stumbled against the statue as the light slowly faded.

“You better have enough we still have a whole night ahead of us.”

Makurow looked over to Snake, his happy, joker look became scared and concerned. The fear in his eyes soon transferred to Makurow. The darkness slowly creeped upon the two, chewing at their toes. Makurow felt weak. Not enough of the statues power has transferred to him; he would have to get into the statue. The inside of an indestructible stone. Makurow took a swing in the last remaining light, sharpening the blade on the light rays and absorbed in any that it stood in.

Makurow took a rapier jab at the stone, leaving no marks against it. Returning the sword to both his hands he lifted the sword above his right shoulder. Darkness pulled on Makurow back, leaning him off balance. Falling over as he hurled a mighty swing against the stature. Light exploded from Makurow's sword gathering at the hit, and then like a water disrupted by a thrown rock, the light separated, deformed and then collapsed together. Creating then an indent in the statue, opening light to the dark outside. The darkness began to vacuum light out of the statue. Makurow scurried to his feet, shoving the dull tip of his sword into the crack. He could see the sword becoming sharper and sharper, but the statue began to crack, the invincible stones jagged surface, crumbled and cracked, as it turned to a soft sand, slowly falling off every inch.

Makurow could feel an evil pulling him away from the statue, hands clenching to his shoulders and dragging him down. Vines wrapped around his ankles and anchored him to the ground. “Snake get these off me.” Makurow pleaded. He stumbled closer to the statue as a huge chunk broke off in front of him. Hands relax on his back; light spanned farther as the statue broke open.

Makurow curled his head to the side. Snake stood on the edge of light and darkness, coughing and wheezing while clawing at his face. Light, like souls, escaped his face. Crawling out of his eyes and through under his lips. At each cough light launched from his mouth, gathering together to vanish into the dark.

Snake’s body formed to completion, scales flutter throughout, his claw shined of gold, giant claws grew from his feet, and his eyes glowed a haunting red. Snake's head dipped down, and the light stopped escaping his mouth. Makurow stood in the glowing light, basked in awe to the monster sitting at the edge of the light.

Through the blackest night, monsters of darkness crawled out from hiding, approaching a slow breathing prey. “Behind you, Snake!” Makurow alerted without thought. Just then a beast jumped at Snake. Holdfast for a strike. Snake, awoke from his unconsciousness, rotating around and grabbing the beast by the neck, and with his claws pried the monster’s eyes lid open, forcing to look into Snake's eyes. Snake sent the monster shaking and trembling, while the beast surrounding, slowly backed off. Maniacal laughter and soul absorption, Makurow observed.

Once Snake was finished with the animal he tossed its limp body into the darkness towards the other monsters of darkness. Makurow let out a quick, loud breath. Snake slowly eased his head towards Makurow's direction. Snake no longer possessed a happy grin, for now it was deep and frightful. “Makurow,” snake said in a long, deep, scary voice. “I'm complete,” he said softly, “that means I don't need you anymore.” Snake shot his body facing Makurow. Makurow stumbled backwards tripping over rubble from the statue. The statue no longer stood any resemblance to what it was hours ago. Pieces scattered everywhere, crumbled to sand.

Snake took slow steps towards Makurow's fallen body, masking the light with the darkness around him. Beasts of darkness followed behind Snake. Makurow lifted his sword from beside him, pointing the tip at Snake. “You know what I can do Snake,” Makurow warned with a scared voice. “Are you sure you want to do this?”

“Only light can vanquish the darkness,” Snake murmured, “but the light cannot protect you from the darkness.” Snake barreled into the air, just as they did when he was bodiless, cloaking himself in the darkness. Makurow stood up in the light, holding his sword horizontal in front of his chest. With the power bestowed upon him, he sharpened the sword in the light, sharper than it's ever been. Placing both feet squared, lowered his body, and began absorbing light through his skin. The light vibrated and tussled around him.

Claws ready to strike. Makurow blocked by placing his sword between the claws. Sparks flew from the clash disorienting Makurow and scaring the beasts. When Makurow re-opened his eyes, once again Snake had vanished.

“I don't think you understand this Makurow,” Snake laughed, “I'm the strongest I've ever been.”

Snake dashed at Makurow once again. Makurow didn't hesitate to strike back. Sword and claw swiped against each other and sparks bigger than before were created. Makurow kept an eye on the ghost as he ran. Sparks landing on the ground caught fire. Monsters of night scurried away. “But it seems you're still scared, Snake,” Makurow said being snarky.

Through the shadows, his worst nightmare appeared. Snake emerged from the fire running back at Makurow, claws higher above his head, but this time Snake was aiming at the sword. Quick slash sent Makurow's sword out of his hands. The sword became consumed in the fire. Snake forcefully placed his claws against Makurow's head, forcing the points into his face, keeping his eyes open and a locking their eyes. “And I'm this powerful all because of you,” Snake said submissively.

Makurow couldn't control himself as Snake's power overcomes him, his mind gave up and he was transported to another vision.

  *******

Robin slowly grabbed the remote to turn on the TV; it's been a long night since her husband's been working nights, he stayed sometimes the whole night over at the big tower in the middle of the city. Designing machines to combat reality.

Robin worried as the methods of her husband's company was making robots to help society, but since a fatal crash in their stocks, they've been bought out by another company: Makurow, a company designed to make weapons of mass destruction, bioweapons, and energy weapons designed to be sold to the masses. Robin feared that her beloved had gone down the wrong path

*click* “...reports have shown military action taking place in neighboring countries.” The TV news anchorman broadcasted. Images of men in metal exo suits fought regular soldiers, regular soldiers from Robin's country.

It's too insane to think that in a matter of days, countries develop new weapons and instantly put them to use. Now it's Mr. Wattson's job to make a weapon greater than human tanks.

“...We’ll be right back after this commercial break.”

Robin lowered the volume and proceeded to the fridge. She fidgeted with her hand during, rubbing her thumb on the inside of her hand. Long night. Pulling the fridge door open she prospected for a distracting treat, but ending up with the water pitcher in her hands. Pouring a glass of water, she picked it up and peered through the window over the sink. She watched the house next door. A woman paced frantically in her room talking on the phone. Pacing back and forth from a closet picking up bunches of clothes and quickly stuffing them into a luggage.

 _Vacation?_ Robin thought. The woman stopped, her eyes water and her lips quiver. Robin could hear through the wall and the short distance between them the woman's deathly cry. Tears and emotion all over the place, collapsing onto the bed in a sob. See looked up for a moment and caught Robin staring at her consciously. She quickly got up and slammed the shutters closed.

Robin clasped her hands to her mouth, she didn't mean to offend her, she just let her curiosity get the better of her. She quickly returned to the fridge grabbing a slice of leftover pie and placing it on a plate, making it look nice as if asking for forgiveness. She wrapped it up in foil and proceeded to the coat rack. Robin picked out her nice, red trench coat. It was a cold august night and it wasn't seeming to get any warmer.

“...police advise...” the TV whispered in its low volume, “...every citizen...” Robin slowly backed up staring at the TV. She soon scrambled for the remote and increased the volume. “After many threats from terrorist groups, president Warren advises everyone to remain in their houses at this time.” Robin stated at the image prompted on screen.

Robin rushed to the telephone, picking it up and dialed her husband's number. Police sirens followed up in the distance, approaching rapidly. Moving down the hall and approaching the bedroom window, tens of police cars and SWAT vans cluttered the road, converging on the house at the end of the street.

“Hello?” A voice extruded from the phone laying in Robin's palms.

“River?” Robin gasped, pressing the phone to her ear.

“What's up, hon?” River replied.

“U-uh have you looked at the news recently?”

“No, sorry, I'm so busy I can't turn the TV on for a second.”

“Well they're saying we are getting nuclear threats from terrorists and the government is advising we should stay home.” She shook with the phone in her hands.

“What? I-uh-”

“River we need to get back on this.” A voice in the background exclaimed.

“Robin I have to get back to work.” His voice wilted. “I would listen to what they're saying on TV but I'm not stopping you from coming here, I'll have the door unlocked for you.”

“No but listen, River,” Robin continued, “there's loads of police forces down at the edge of the road, they showed up in seconds.”

“Who's house?” River curiously asked.

“I don't know, they're in front of the three houses beside the crosswalk.”

“That sounds like you should get down here.”

“River! Now!” A stern voice directed at River yelled in the background of the call. “Ok well I have to go, see you here, love you, bye.”

*buzz*

Robin slowly lowered the phone staring at call end number. Footsteps drew Robin's attention, figures galloped around big swat vans holding large weapons.

Robin ran to the door picking up the keys by the leftover foiled pie. Quick setting the alarm she slipped out the door. Chatter from the house beside her set her precautions.

“I'm sorry ma’am I cannot disclose the reason for our presence, I was just wondering why you were screaming earlier.” A police man stood at the door of the sad woman's house, the distressed woman hid behind a blue door with the lights off.

“It was nothing; I was on the phone with someone when something terrible came up.” The sad woman explained. Robin sneaked to her car over on the side of the house facing the two conversing and a clear view for the sad lady behind the door. “If you wanna know something: that lady was spying on me and you should check on _her_.”

The woman slammed the door on the policeman. The policeman effortlessly trekked the lawns connecting the two properties waving one hand at Robin for her attention.

“I'm sorry ma’am,” he apologized with a strong southern accent, “but I would not advise you leave the house, especially in this circumstance now.”

“Sorry, but I have to go somewhere right _now_.”

“Ma’am it's dangerous to leave the house, have you not been listening to the news.”

“Yes I have and something tells me the house isn't the safest place to be right now!” Robin furiously pushed a key through the lock.

“Ma’am please return inside.” The officer followed Robin around the car.

“No!” Robin refused, “you can go to-”

A large bang sounded out in the distance, debris flew from a house occupied by enforcement on the lawn. The policeman left Robin and sprinted to the vehicles. Robin, in turn, jumped into her car. Gun fire proceeded and Robin turned on the car quickly.

Gunshots continued and Robin ducked under the dash in fear. A large roar came from behind the vehicles stopping the gunfire. Silence but for a moment; Robin's heart pounded faster than it had ever been. Large stomps grew closer. Men ran from behind the vans, lugging their guns by their sides.

Robin thoughtless, pressed hard on the gas pedal with the emergency brake still on, burning out on the driveway. Causing a large scene on her. She quickly lifted her foot. Raising her hands from the steering wheel, shaking vigorously, she closed her eyes and tried to take a deep breath.

In

Out

In

Out

In

...

She slowly opened her eyes and slowly exhaled.

*crash*

“Aaaaaaah!” Robin screamed as a van crashed from the sky, feet from the bumper of her car. Landing on the roof of the van, crumbling in size.

“Roooar!” An eight-foot monster stood in the place of a van by the groups of vehicles. Wings shot out behind its back. Growing out to a twenty-foot wingspan. Soldiers lifted from behind cover, machine gunning the monster.

Robin took off the emergency break and pushed on the gas, smashing the car on the van ahead of her, but the van did not move.

The monster shielded its face with its two long claws. It effortlessly breathed lightning back at the soldiers, killing them in seconds. The beast twisted its neck in Robin's direction. Leaping in the air, the monster landed on top the van.

“Roooar!” The monster yelled at Robin. Green gas spurred from its long, multi colored, underbite, face. its jigsaw teeth closed, cutting off the gas.

Robin froze in immense fear. The monster crawled around her vehicle, leaving its wings dangling off its back, brushing the car. Robin watched its many, gross eyes. Seven; four above the mouth, three below. All symmetrical on its pointed chin.

The monster stared back at Robin. A horrid connection lied dormant in Robin. The monster smiled a horrible, horrible smile.

“Hello,” the monster spoke in a human voice, “so this is where they placed me?”

The monster stood back from the car. Robin returned to pushing the van in front of her, but now the van had been anchored to the ground. The monster grabbed the driver side car door, and yanked it off with the greatest of ease. Robin took off her seatbelt and tried running to the side of the car, but the beast quickly grabbed her with its meaty claws, right under her arms. It lifted her up to its face, breathing noxious fumes from its bowels. Robin coughed and coughed.

Green smog clouded her view. Through the smoke, dozen blue and orange eyes found their place. With one arm over her mouth, Robin swung her other arm at the eyes, smacking one. The monster dropped Robin.

“You may be smaller, but you're still as restless as always,” the beast spoke rubbing it eyes. Poison settled in the night, the monster removed his claws from his face, searching in the green for its prey. “Where have you gone, Little flower?”

Through the poison cloud Robin hid behind the back of the smashed up car, holding back a cough. Sick and blind, Robin swatted the air around her trying to push the smog aside. The beast approaches her, but without a clue to where she was. Robin couldn't take much more, she must try to breath, even if that means she would cough.

The beast continues to breath out poison, heavily and angrily. It had sat long enough in the thick fog that its vision has been impaired. It dropped its body low, crawling slowly like a tiger around the back of the car, leading its nose. It sensed a presence, close enough to touch. The best backed up a bit, leaving enough room to grab. A cough drove the monster’s attention to the front of the car. _She must have escaped me,_ it thought. The beast backed out of the poison, cutting off the connection to its mouth.

It observed the dome of green toxins, somewhere in there its prey hid. Through its grin sparks flew, and electricity connected from its uvula to is upper teeth, creating a current. The monster pushed its right foot back, curling its shoulders back, and lifting its chest up. Like a powerful lantern, light shined from its mouth. Lightning bolts quickly shot from its mouth connecting to metals around the beast. “Come out!” It said, muffled in the static, then without a second to think, it busted lightning from its mouth concentrated towards the cloud of poison.

Lit up in an explosive fire, the toxin and the vehicles combusted. Nothing would be able to survive that blast. Houses surrounding took in debris. Robin's house lost half of the garage and caught a blaze. Fire engulfed Robin's house. Smoke grew, being able to be seen for miles.

The monster walked through the smoke, looking for evidence of death. “I am the reaper,” it said, “I am the bane of your evil existence.” It moved towards twisted and blown up metal. An appendage extruded from beneath the metal. The beast lifted its left hand above its head and in a second materialized an ax from the smoke. It chopped the air in front of it, clearing the smoke around the monster. “I am Toxic Shock,” The monster said while swinging at the metal below him.

The metal flew, revealing a body below it. A scorched police man. Toxic Shock peered his head up. _Impossible_ , he thought. Frantically he threw metal pieces aside, digging through wreckage for Robin. “Where?!” He roared, concluding Robin had survived.

Toxic pushed out of the smoke, fluttering his wings, pushing fire away from him. A loud bang, quickly followed by an impact through Toxic’s chest. Robin held a gun, the policeman's gun, she held it shaking, scared by a monster. The monster that had an unknown vengeance against her.

*******

And then Makurow emerged from his vision, holding Snake's head; a power erupted from inside Makurow sending a powerful electric current through his body. Snake screamed in horror as Makurow electrocuted him. The monsters of the dark turned tail and ran, more afraid of Makurow than ever. “Man!” Makurow angrily yelled at Snake, “I am the man of conduction! There is no reason I should be afraid of you, even in the darkest of nights!”

Makurow pulled back his power. He tossed Snake to the ground like Snake did previously to the monster. Makurow stared at Snake's body shaking and weakened.

Makurow turned to the darkness. He quickly lifted his sword to the night. Once again forcing the power from inside himself. Easily he lit the world around him for he could now control the light of day. Monsters hidden in the darkness became vanquished by his light.

“You may have defeated me,” Snake spoke, “but you will never _kill_ a god like myself.” Snake stood jiggering every second.

“Then I will take off your head, because no one can walk away from that.” Makurow charged at Snake aiming for his hunched neck.

“You’ll be surprised.” Snake opened his arms embracing his destruction.

Makurow sliced off Snake's ugly head leaving scorch marks on the cuts. Snake's head fell to the floor bouncing as it rolled. Snake's body fell limp. Makurow looked at Snake's head staring back, Snake's lip shivered. “He-he-he,” Snake laughed, clearly in pain. “Is this what you expected?”

“How?” Makurow questioned.

“I told you; I've reached a greater power, I'm now a god amongst you mortals.” Snake wiggled his head on the floor. A spine grew out of his head. A long tail on Snake's head.

Slithering, Snake returned to his limp body. Crawling up the back, appendages grew from the tail, grabbing onto the shoulder of the body.

“That's a clean cut!” Snake laughed looking at his severed neck.

Snake floated off the ground carrying his body. “Where do you think you’re going?” Makurow lifted his dull sword at Snake.

“By destroying the pillar you have released another being,” Snake said, picking up speed. “And I'm going to say hello to her.”

 _Her_? Makurow thought as he watched Snake escape. Snake vanished in the daylight in seconds, headed the same way the two had come, behind the hills at the edge of the beach. An uneven feeling sat in Makurow stomach, somehow he knew who Snake was talking about, but he just hoped he wrong.


	9. On a thin line

Seven nights later Makurow returned to the camp. A giant dome lab sat on the back of the statue, held up by the arms, a perfect fit. Zip operated machinery in the dome and The Wonderer laid sleeping in the grass. Sibious noticed Makurow's arrival, and once he did he backed off into hiding in the dome. Makurow made his way to the back of the statue, a cylinder tube with a ladder inside lead into the dome. Makurow squeezed through, Zip hadn't taken into Makurow's size as it was obviously fitted to Zip and Wonder's size, small.

Six identical robot skeletons sat in the corner all in separate storage tubes.

“Hello Zip,” Makurow said quietly, knowing Zip was upset with him.

“We almost didn't make it last night.” Zip sat at a workbench hammering a metal piece on a piece of machinery.

“What about my remaining robot?”

“Once again it was beat up and broken,” Zip turned towards Makurow shaking his hammer at him. “They're useless without weapons; I was lucky to have my hammer with me, doubling as a weapon I was able to defend myself.” Zip ranted walking towards Makurow. “No thanks to you.”

“I'm sorry I had to leave to find Thresh.”

“And how did that work out for you? I didn't see you arrive with him.” Zip stood in front of Makurow, even though he was shorter, Zip stood above Makurow.

“I've gotten closer to finding him,” Makurow said with a fear in his eyes. “But I have found a greater power within myself.”

“I knew it!” Zip turned from Makurow charging back to his bench. “You have been consumed by the darkness and now you have been giving powers from it.” Zip dug into his pouch on the table pulling out fire stones. “I don't want to see you again.” Zip raised the stones above his head ready to throw them at Makurow.

“I know how to power those robots.” Makurow stood unfazed.

“How?” Sibious asked.

“The ground below the Greyland contains stones of light, the same as the statue, that contains millenniums worth of light.” Makurow paused, looking at the puppets in their cases. “And you'll still need me to design the robots.”

Zip shoved the rocks back into the pouch. “Prove it.”

Makurow repaired his invention, the metal beast with a hunch and a caged face. He fitted his robot with a drill and a singular sharp claw, being able to dig through the toughest surfaces including the Greyland. As well Makurow equipped the robot with a third appendage reaching over his shoulder stuck to his back; a monstrous claw, to pick up pieces of the Greyland.

The robot farmed the Greyland for months, supplying the camp with eight giant slates of stones of light. Eight slates of stone before a terrible terribleness fell in the land.

One day during the last extraction, the light died in the Greyland. Makurow watched as a brown color grew over the grey dead land, and an orange flower sprouted in the middle. Makurow turned to the slabs and knew he had deprived a whole planet of its light to put it into defenders, and he wasn't going to disappoint.

Makurow logged onto the console, using it to design all the robots for every purpose he could think of. A file sat labeled ‘Drillbit’.

“Did you name one of my files Zip?” Makurow asked annoyed.

“I had to,” Zip said triumphant, “I needed to know the difference between Robot 1 and Robot X.”

“Well you have to talk about these things with me first,” Makurow said angrily, “I, as well, don't want you naming them something stupid.”

“Fine-fine.” Zip looked at each sad robot in their capsule. “But the first one is on me, Drillbit has a good ring to it.”

“Ugh,” Makurow sighed.

Makurow had condensed the slabs to a small plate by absorbing light from the sides and fusing it back into the center.

“We need the first one to be the leader; the mind of the group,” Makurow explained, “without one they'll be running into each other as they fight.”

Makurow placed the first plate into the orange robot. It was fitted with a multi-shield on its left arm, a shield that could be used on each side, one side contained a rapid fire laser rifle, the opposite side had pinchers and the front was a shield able to absorb the greatest of hits. As well the robot held a spike launcher on its right wrist.

“Nexus!” Makurow commanded.

“Nexus online,” the robot spoke.

Makurow made two more robots. The cavalier of the group. Sergeant and Soldier. The blue ‘Sergeant’, holding a plasma arm cannon on the right arm, able to blast a hole in any surface but took far too long to start up and recover, so Makurow gave Sergeant a sword of lightning, powered by the plates of light and birthed by Makurow's own power, also the Sergeant's boots had controllable gravitational pull on them, making Sergeant able to walk over any hard surface on any directional plane.

Project ‘gold’ Soldier held a sword and a round shield, and a visor able to detail combat. Makurow trained with Soldier to further strengthen the combat visor so that one day all the robot could accompany one.

Makurow stood in front of the three, shorter than Makurow but taller than Zip.

“What do you call the plates then?” Zip questioned.

“Cores,” Makurow answered, “their indestructible hearts.”

“We should give them a personality subroutine.” Zip wanted the robots to be like them, but Makurow heartlessly refused.

“They can never have personalities,” Makurow explained, “for they will never compile to commands and will one day go against us.” Makurow stared out onto the field of beautiful flowers, overthrowing the Greyland. “Just like everyone else has.”

Zip stood back grabbing at the rails of the ladder.

“Alright big guy,” Zip said comforting, “I'll let Wonderer know we're ready. He suspects there is going to be a night fall soon.”

“Can he sense it?”

“No, it’s like he's catching onto a pattern.”

And darkness did fall that day, but Makurow and the group were ready. More than ready; the monsters of the darkness weren't expecting to be electrocuted, burned, and sliced up, but it was all too familiar for them.

Zip felt accomplished, but Makurow did not, his friend Thresh was not there to see the triumph, as well Snake didn't turn up for Makurow to take his revenge. Makurow walked to the edge of the camp with the ambition to find his friend.

“Don't do it!” Zip insisted. “You leave again and I'll know you are corrupted.”

“Why can't you let me go?” Makurow pleaded, “we've defeated the darkness.”

“The darkness is not yet got, not until the suns and the stars bury them.” Sibious stood. “And when an animal is faced with an obstacle they evolve to overcome it.”

Makurow stopped and listened to Zip's words, because he too has seen something so wretched evolve into something stronger.

Time past and Makurow worked on improving the three robots, ignoring the others. Zip invented more equipment, and Wonderer tended to the flower field.

A night fell but no monsters emerged. Makurow had created a safety for the group, nothing else could protect them except the robots, and Makurow wanted to take advantage of the situation. Makurow grabbed an invention he and Zip made, a rifle with an ax attached to the nuzzle. The rifle being able to double as a close quarters weapon. Makurow looked at the engraving on the wooden stock, ‘Thresh’. Makurow had thought to be able to give Thresh this weapon as a gift of forgiveness if he ever had to come across him.

Makurow looked into the black night. Today could be the perfect time to set off, nothing to stop him anymore. The robots could take care of the camp perfectly fine. There isn't any worry for monsters, they were too scared to come now, why would the ever, then? Makurow could no longer face the anticipated of seeing Thresh's face. It was now or never.

*******

“We shouldn't be here!” General Zekeao insisted. A dark barracks with criminal from all over the seas sat at a table in council. Council decided by who could down the most drinks or last the longest without getting a hole through their chest.

“We need a crew,” Garth rebutted, “at least a few; we can't body the law by ourselves.”

Zekeao pulled a coat over his large body. “I'll be back here.”

Garth pulled a seat at the table, loud commotion as the member conversed with themselves. Big scary criminals held large weapons, _barbaric_. Garth hated the presence of every soul in the room. If Garth wasn’t on the same list as the criminals around him, he would take down every last person near him and bring them to a fair judgment under fine law. But Garth wasn’t on the right side of the law, so who was he to speak.

A woman sat pushing back on her chair. A brown fellow tried to flirt with her. She laughs at the man's courage. He leaned over her, she sat staring into his eye. She slowly reached for a blade behind her back. Garth could see the man closing his eyes and leaning in for a kiss, but the woman shoved him over into the table. Drawing the blade from behind her back she placed it against his cheek. The room became silent.

“I don't delve with your scum,” she threatened, shoving him off the table. The room became loud again.

Garth turned to Zekeao, he laid against the wall by the window looking out to the shipyard. Garth approached the woman. She was middle aged but very beautiful in Garth's eyes. “Is he ok?” Garth asked cautiously.

“Why do you care?” She responded investigating the blood on the knife. The man on the floor held his hand on his right cheek.

“I'm looking to gather a crew,” Garth submitted, “I was hoping he would be willing to join us.”

“Where are you going?” She asked putting the knife away.

“West.”

“West where?!” She looked him in the eye. “There's nothing left west.”

“Me and my friend there, the guy in the cloak, are going to the edge of the world.” Garth pointed to Zekeao by the window.

“You mean the Asian?” She pushed up on her chair.

“Yes.”

“Where did you find a man like that?” She walked around Garth's back. “Most of them aren't complacent to join a pirate crew.”

“It's not a pirate crew.”

“Sure, Viking.” The woman twisted around to the front of him. “What are you looking for in the west?”

“I told you,” Garth sternly said, “we are going to the edge of the world.”

“No one _goes_ to the edge of the world. What are you looking for?”

“Someone promised us land over the horizon.” Garth broke eye contact with the woman and stared at his feet.

“Which boat is yours?” She moved away from Garth and toward Zekeao’s window.

“The one with the dragon sails.”

“No?!” She turned back with glistening eyes. “If that is your ship, you have to let me be a part of your crew.”

“What do you see in that ship?”

“If you are thinking about travelling to the edge of the world, that ship will surely take you.”

“I know,” Garth admitted confused, “the Black Dragon is the Generals ship.”

“So you didn't steal General Zekeao’s ship?” She asked looking at the General by the window. “I'm guessing that's him? Didn’t expect to see him alive after the news going around about the kings wish for his public execution.”

She moved from Garth, quickly approaching the General. She brushed her hands on her hips wiping away the dirt from her fingers. Garth whistled for the Generals attention. The General turned happily; to leave this disgusting place would delight him.

The woman moved passing a torch, the light perfectly lit up her facial details. Zekeao looked into her eyes and in an instant he recognized her intentions. His face became dark in fear. The woman moved her hand over her butt, grabbing the knife by the handle. Garth reached for his pistol by his side. The woman grabbed the General by the arm, swinging to his back. She pressed the knife hard against Zekeao’s neck.

The brown man with the cut on his face pressed a gun against Garth's head. “We're taking your ship, Viking,” the man muttered. Garth barely had a grasp on his gun.

“And the General,” the woman added, “we have a better use for the ship too, then ramming it to the west.”

“Garth?” Zekeao pleaded, “what did you tell them?”

“Everything,” Garth admitted, “I thought it would be convincing.”

“Looks like you convinced them pretty well.” Zekeao looked over to the woman. He slowly released his cloak from his shoulders. Letting it get hung on the window sill.

“Let's go!” She insisted pulling Zekeao towards the door. The man moved in front of Garth placing himself between him and the door.

“Have fun boys with this... Viking.” The man insulted as he left with the two.

Garth turned around and faces the crowd of goons walking towards him. Garth backed up to the door. A bouncer blocked the door. Swords and axes were held at the crowds’ waist. Garth brushed by the window, peaking at his friend and the criminal duo. Garth reached under the cloak and pulled out his double edge great sword. Garth would never leave Zekeao unarmed.

“You guys don't know who I am.” Garth held his gun out at the crowd, but the crowd still marched toward him. Garth held one bullet in the pistol, a variable he knew the crowd didn't know, but they seemed to.

Garth pulled back, placing the gun on the window sill. He held the sword by both hands and spun around backwards. On his way around he threw his body and swung at the mob. A graceful energy emerged from the sword pushing over the crowd. Garth returned to his pistol and aimed it behind the glass at the brown man, feet from the Red Dragon. Garth took some time with his aim, knowing the goons had become less of a worry.

He fired the bullet through the glass and the bullet punctured the man in the calve. The woman turned her head back for a moment, she saw Garth in the window and heaved herself and Zekeao onto the ship. The man crawled on the floor holding his bloody leg.

Garth threatened the bouncer with his gun, swirling it to motion him to move. The bouncer moved sliding away from the door. Garth ran towards the boat, passing by the man lying head down. The woman held the knife to the rope cutting the ship loose. Garth sprang up grabbing the ladder suspended up high. The ship, even though at the docks, was taller than any vessel around. Garth pulled himself up leaving his legs dangle and the sword swerving in the sheath behind his back.

Ropes began to be cut loose as the woman switched from a knife to a sword. The sounds of rope rolling then smacking against the wooden deck. The ship rocked on the salt water, banging against the docks. Garth lost grip of the ladder on one of his hands. He dropped the right arm, flailing to his side. Raised anchor and lowered sails, the boat rocked out of the shipyard with a crazy criminal driving.

The hot black painted boards rubbed against Garth's chest as he reaches for the ladder above him. Garth kicked on the side of the ship to boost himself up.

“C’mon!” The women stood staring over the rails on the upper deck, proceeding to move away approaching the rope ladder.

Garth pulled on the ladder leading his foot onto the cap of the cannon. He pried the cap open, lifting it up. The cannon sat blocking the way. Garth swung on the ladder to kick past the cannon. The sound of rope twanging as the woman tried to cut the sturdy ladder. Garth pushed with his heel against the cannon's face, inching it a bit back. Garth slipped through the hole pulling the cap down with him.

A sound of rope splashing in the water followed as Garth placed himself against the cannon.

“Where are you?!” The woman screamed form the two decks above.

Garth pulled out his sword, keeping it low to the ground. Wet boots stomp down the stairs. Garth pushed a barrel of gunpowder over and rolled it towards the door. Garth pressed himself against the wall beside the door. He would hope the barrel would scare her but Garth would never blow up the ship.

Garth stood ready. The boat rocked on the open sea. The smell of the salty waters extruded through the floorboards. Garth noticed a sudden silence, seagulls no longer soared above and the sound of footsteps stopped. Garth felt as though something was wrong.

Garth slowly opened the door leaving a crack for him to peek through. No one occupied the stairs and the floor above was silent. Garth snuck through the door and hid below the stairs. A crate sat by him, filled with a week worth of portions for a crew. A crew that never came to be. _Where could this woman be?_ Garth thought. He moved around the stairs heading for the back of the boat, a second set of stairs would await him there.

The waves became heavy, throwing the boat around like driftwood. Water crashing against rocks. _Where is she taking us?_ The stairs shook in the distance. The walls wobble as they moved. The floorboards bounced around. _This isn't normal._ Garth charged to the stairs tripping and stumbling as he went. Grabbing the rails to stabilize himself, he shuffled himself upstairs. Eerie noises fill his mind. Garth pushed a hatch open leading to quarters. Lanterns and glasses fell from crates by the bed sides. Sounds of scratching against the walls of the ship alarmed Garth. _Something unnatural is happening_.

Garth held onto beds to shimmy towards the door, leading to the lower deck. He grabbed the handle and jerked it around. _Is it locked?_ He thought.

 _It could never. There's never a lock on this door!_ The walls compress on him, shaking and sliding. Garth pressed himself back on the door banging with his fist.

The door swung open, throwing Garth to the floor.

“There you are.” The walls backed off as the woman entered holding a knife.

“Wha... how?” Garth asked as he looks around. The lanterns and glasses sat together on the crates. Sounds of scratching stopped and the boat stood still.

“Come here!” The woman yelled charging at Garth on the floor.

Garth stood dizzy. As the woman approached, Garth grabbed a lantern by one of the bed. The woman stepped to the side, taking a long swing with her knife. Garth blocked with the lantern, catching the knife in the center. Glass broke as the knife pierced through. Garth twisted the lantern down, catching control of the woman's knife. Garth pushed towards her grabbing the woman's free wrist. He pushed her against the curved wall, holding her off balance.

His bulky body towered over her small figure.

“Who are you?” Garth demands. “Witch?”

“Nowhere near a witch,” the woman replied with a smirk. “Viking.” She added. “My names Robin. I'm a sorceress. That's why I'm not that good with a sword, but I'm great with controlling my enemies and I'm mediocre with a knife.”

“You didn't get to me.” Garth boasted.

“You're a harder nut to crack, I’ll admit.” The woman tried twisting her wrist in distraught. “You can let me go and I’ll promise not to kill you.”

“Not if I kill you first.” Garth pushed Robin harder against the wall.

“You were looking for a crew?” Robin forced to look away from Garth. “Right?”

“I was looking for a pair of extra hands, to be honest.”

“I trust you weren't actually going to the edge of the world?” Robin looked back with a smile. “I really thought you were joking, because I'm going there as well.”

Garth let go of Robin’s wrist, but pressed his forearm against her chest and pulled the knife from her hand. “Sure you were.” Garth stepped away from Robin letting her fumble to the floor. “What am I going to do with you?”

“Take me to the west!” Robin pleads while rubbing her wrist. “You won't be able to survive what's there with just a sword and courage.”

“You think I want your magic?” Garth asked lightly. “If I did need magic I'll just find another witch.”

“I'm the best you’ll ever find!” Robin stood up from the floor. “No one in the world knows the same magic as I do.”

“Are you trying to sound impressive?” Garth reached for his sword but he couldn't feel it in the sheath. “Because you couldn't get a grasp on me.”

“Sounds like I did.” Robin said holding Garth’s covered great sword.

“Give that back!”

Robin slipped past Garth. She turned at the door and headed up around the stairs to the upper deck. The light shined past the door. Garth followed the woman, her quick steps led the way. She stood on the rails holding onto the sword with one hand and a sails rope with the other.

“You have to promise me you'll add me to your crew or I'll drop the sword.” Robin proposed.

“You drop the sword I’ll drown you,” Garth rebutted, “maybe I’ll do it anyways since you're pissing me off so much.” Garth walked angry.

“Don't take another step!” She warned.

“Drop it!” Garth insisted.

“Fine.” Robin threw the sword to the wood. She stepped of the rail and leaned back on it. “You're too stubborn to convince.”

“Not stubborn, smart.” Garth said.

“Don't worry.” Robin turned and looked off the ship to the blue ocean. “I'll get to the edge of the world in this life or the next.”

“I’ll bank on the next,” Garth said approaching her backside. “Where should I drop you off?”

“The west.”

“Ha!” Garth laughed, “now? Never.”

“I could show you around, I know the place.” Robin smirked as she watched waves crash against the boat. “I used to live in that place.”

“Yeah right.” Garth leaned on the rail with Robin, her presence made Garth feel unnaturally warm. “No one believes that there is land to the west.”

“No one but you.” Robin looks at Garth's scar filled face. “What ever happened to you Viking?”

“I'm the greatest sword and arms out there.” Garth boasted.

“What about the monkey?” Robin asked getting closer to Garth.

“Who?”

“You know,” she got right up to his ear and whispers softly, “the General.”

“General?!” Garth stood back from the ledge, feeling extremely dizzy and off balance. “Where's the-” Garth stumbled over catching himself. “Where's the General?” Garth stood watching Robin approach him. The world spun around him. A nauseous feeling grew in his bowels.

“Got-cha!”

Garth's vision faded to black as he watched the evil witch take over his mind.


	10. Shifting Trust

Promised life by the almighty. On the vessel after escaping certain death, a vision set upon Garth in his sleep. Glorious green, past the sea many would say equals no return, but the luscious green isn't what caught Garth's interest.

A woman laid in the arms of a tall man, they smiled back at Garth. Their skin sat like in a painting. Clothes brown and tattered but lovely nonetheless. A small stack of logs tied up with sewed-in cow hides. Tents scattered around the land. Peaceful people lived in the valley, with no social construct.

Garth saw the sparkle in the couples’ eyes; no worries were ever in their lives. It was a life worth dying for.

 

“Get up you hairy ogre!” A heavy jab was thrown against Garth's side. He awoke in the quarters of the ship. The white sheets pulled up to his hips and he laid in a white shirt. Robin stood at the bedside; a knife in her right palm and her hands on her hips. “The General needs your help,” Robin said as she watched Garth's body rock in a hard bed.

“Why aren't you controlling me anymore?” Garth asked insultingly.

“You passed out immediately,” Robin said crossing to the door. She had changed her clothes wearing dark shorts and a white blouse with a leather strap going over the shoulders and chest. A pistol sat in a holster. “You should hurry, he's a little grumpy.”

“And he let you keep a gun?” Garth asked insulted.

“He's really trusting,” Robin said walking off with a smirk.

She closed the door gently behind her. Garth moved the sheets from his legs, to his surprise, someone had removed his pants and had left him in his underwear. He searched the quarters thoroughly. A pair of clothes sat folded perfectly on a bed, small, clearly the fugitives change of clothing. Zekeao’s cloak hung by the door. Garth grabbed the cloak and threw it on his body and he left the quarters. The daylight shone and the sun blinded Garth.

As Garth's eyes adjusted to the light the sound of whistling called to his attention, soft and heartwarming. Zekeao and Robin tied down the sails. Wind barely pushed against the low sails.

“General,” Garth called out as he could finally make out Zekeao's figure. “Where's my clothes?”

The General turned to Garth. He was delighted to see Garth awake, Robin continued to whistle happily. Zekeao's quickly finished tying and headed towards Garth.

“Garth!” Zekeao exclaimed, “How glad I am to see you awake.” Zekeao stopped as he noticed Garth's heavy brows and staring. “What's wrong?”

“I got a lot of questions,” Garth said annoyed, “What's wrong with you? Why are you letting _her_ stay on the boat? And where is my clothes? Because I'm sitting here in my first layer of clothing under your blue apron.” Robin giggled to his statement.

“Garth, there's nothing wrong,” Zekeao said looking deep into Garth eyes to figure what is angering him. “I don't understand why you are so anal about this.”

“Because that witch took you hostage, robbed our ship; do you not remember this?” Garth grabbed onto Zekeao’s shoulders, letting the cloak open, Robin held her laughs back as she stood behind the General basking in Garth's “glory”.

“Garth-”

“Stop saying my name, you're making me nervous.” Garth pulled Zekeao closer.

“Robin is going to help us.” Zekeao gave a confused smile, “Didn't you want help?”

“Not her’s.”

“I feel offended,” Robin interjected.

“Like you should be,” Garth replied. “Where's my clothes demon?”

“Now I'm a demon? Thought I was a witch?” Robin asked.

“Can you people stop dodging my question?!” Garth looked back at Zekeao.

“I washed them, you smelled terrible,” Robin answered, “they're hanging on the upper deck.”

Garth pushed past the two, heading to one of the stairs on the side of the ship. The calm blue sea stretched across the horizon. Robin returned to whistling as she picked up a mop and bucket. Zekeao walked to the last sail in the front. A humming came from the upper deck. Someone trying to hum the melody of Robin’s whistle.

A woman steered the ship with a glee smile, wearing a small tattered dress. Tears and holes on the bottom of the light blue cloth.

“Who are you?” Garth asked lightly staring at her face. She was a slanted eyed woman, the same race as Zekeao but had darker skin, she was also young. She was possibly in her late teens.

“Hello sir,” she replied, “I am Lily, Robin’s friend.” She kept a happy smile. “She told me you were going to the edge of the world, and I knew I had to come.”

“Where did she pick you up?” Garth approached Lily.

“She came to my port, looking for her crew.”

“Did she bring anyone else?” Garth asked annoyed.

“No.” She became amazed at Garth's massive size. “I saw you last night, but you were sleeping.” She paused for a second. “Wow.”

“What?”

“You're really large!” she admitted, seeing Garth's body push against Zekeao's cloak. “Where are you from?”

“The north,” Garth replied feeling easy. “You?”

“If you ask Robin she will say I'm from the east,” She explained.

“Just like the General,” Garth connected.

“Yeah, but I truly don't know where I'm from.” Lily said losing her smile.

“Why don't you know?” Garth asked wholeheartedly.

“When Robin first met me I had amnesia.” Lily stared at her hands on the steering wheel.

“And she took care of you?” Garth questioned.

“Yes!” She replied without thought. “She’s the best thing in my life. When she finally came to visit I was so happy, and when she told me she found someone who truly believed about the west, I had to come.”

“Good to know she's got close friends.” Garth lied.

“Sir?”

“Yes?”

“Why were you yelling at the General and Robin earlier?” She asked staring up at Garth. “Do you not like her?”

“I'm just a little confused right now,” Garth admitted.

He walked to a wire set up, tied to two rail posts on the back of the upper deck. Sets of clothing lined up like paper on the wire. His heavy brown clothes sat in the middle of the line with seven other pieces of clothing. He turned back to the woman, she steered happy, not paying any attention to Garth. Garth turned to the hanging clothes, he examined every piece. A woman's pink blouse with cuffed sleeves, blue pants, a bra and trousers, a white, ripped, armless shirt, black shorts, and another pair of pants.

Garth quickly checked pockets and felt over lumps in the other clothing. All empty. He pulled off his clothes from the wire.

“Sir?” Lily called.

“Yes?” Garth said compliant.

“Is your name is Ga-reth?” She asked.

“Garth,” he corrected, “lose the ‘e’, it should flow easily, not choppy.” He fitted his leg through his pants, losing the cloak. “It should be one syllable.”

Garth could feel eyes staring at him. Lily barely held onto the wheel as she stared amazed at Garth.

“You have a lot of scars,” she said, “just like Robin.”

“Oh really?” Garth put on his shirt ignoring the comment.

“Oh yes,” Lily continued, “have you seen how damaged her legs are?”

“No, I haven't. The only time I've seen her is when she was in long pants.”

“She's wearing shorts now. I bet you want to see,” Emily said teasing Garth's lust.

Garth walked up beside Lily looking over the railing to the lower deck. His shirt stayed unbuttoned. Robin stood hunched over washing the floor and whistling a happy tune. She was barefoot and her legs were wet. Scars lined up her leg. Like someone spent prison with her and tallied the days spent on her leg.

“Terribly ugly,” Lily said looking back and forth to Garth's chest and Robin's legs, “no one would like to see these.”

Garth walked down the stairs buttoning up his shirt. He walked into the quarters; a bucket and mop sat behind the door. Garth joined Robin in mopping the deck. Zekeao being nowhere to be found. Garth mopped beside Robin, cleaning the left side of the deck. Robin stopped, she leaned against the mop in both hands. She let out a happy sigh. She dipped the mop in the bucket of cleaning water.

“I saw you talking to Lily,” Robin said.

“And?” Garth said, a bit poached.

“Nothing.” Robin moped happily.

 

The boat pulled into a small shack by a mountain, the mountain covered the shore from the mainland. Small shacks and architectures surround the base of the mountain; the structures looked dark and broken, some looked burned from the base up. All looked abandoned and forgotten. Robin hopped off the ship holding a long rope to tie down to the dock. People appeared from the buildings, most waving to Robin, and she waved back. Garth could see by the clothes the people wore: they were pirates.

Garth watched as Robin recruited a pirate crew, it made Garth's stomach burn to think that his voyage would be turned into a pirate expedition. Pirates; he hated pirates, but they were the only available crew. Garth was a wanted man; the king knew he had helped a General of an opposing country escape custody. The Generals head was supposed to be a reward to the king, when the delivery was disrupted a bounty was put on General Zekeao and for anyone helping him.

Garth was through with crooked kings. It seemed pirates had a better understanding of peaceful living than the self-proclaimed hierarchy.

Garth sat and watched from the upper deck as pirates boarded his large vessel. No one looked the same. A barely black man, a small bald man with fat legs, a tall skinny man who kept his hands close to his chest as he searched with his eyes around the boat, and other oddities.

“You're not used to these people? Are you?” Lily asked laying on her arm on the wheel.

“I only, always, had a team of young white men,” Garth said, “not a bunch of convicts.”

“Well I'm used to them!” Lily said with a smile, “I like seeing unique people.” Lily always seemed happy about everything.

“Do they know what they're getting into?” Garth asked with a little bit of care for the pirates going into a so called suicide expedition.

“You should ask them, captain!” Lily poked Garth's shoulder.

Garth moved off the rails looking down to the lower deck and proceeded to it. Garth could see, through the door to the stairs below, Zekeao talking with some crew mates about the journey, in the lower level of the boat. Robin continued greeting new pirates aboard, looking like she knew each crook. One of which looked very familiar to Garth. He was fat and had a large moustache. He had bruises on his face and his knees were covered in ash and blood.

Robin stopped at the fat man. Garth watched her ask him questions. Garth could not make out what Robin was asking. The man looked angry, he spoke loud and had force in his voice.

“Where is he?!” The man yelled.

“Who?” Robin asked carefully.

“The man who is responsible,” the man continued to yell at Robin. She began to get annoyed.

“I don't know who you are talking about!” She held him back a bit.

“Some of the crew was talking about this being Garth's expedition.” The man cooled down for a second. Robin turned a worried look to Garth. The man followed Robin's eyes. “You!”

The fat man pushed past Robin, hobbling towards Garth. It was the baker from the castle raid. He was two hundred miles away from that castle, with a vengeance against a soldier who did his job to protect a corrupted king. At this point, Garth couldn't blame him.

“You!” The baker yelled, “you let innocent people die because you were too stubborn.” Robin laughed.

“I'm sorry,” Garth whispered under his breath.

“That monster destroyed the entire village to prove that he wouldn't be messed with.” The baker walked up to Garth, the baker was shorter than Garth. Garth looked at him with apologizing eyes. “There is a large bounty on everyone here. I could get my home back, handing you guys in.”

“Or-you could join us and find a land of endless opportunities!” Robin proposed.

“How can you be certain there is land out there?” The man interrogated, turning back to Robin. Some of the crew walk out of the room Zekeao was in to listen in. “What if you are trying to bring that ‘ape’ back to his homeland?” The baker said to Garth. People crowded around the argument. Robin circled around the baker and stood by Garth's shoulder.

“I know there is land out there, you have to trust me,” Robin said.

The man in frustration, looked up, he saw Lily on the upper decks. “Is she another one of the ‘apes’ you are trying to rescue.” Lily ducked under the wheel in shame.

Garth became annoyed. “If another person calls these people ‘Apes’ I'm going to tear their head off!” Garth said, stepping towards the baker. “Yes we are fleeing! But I don't know if you know this but back at the Generals homeland, the people in charge aren't so nice to their own people after being captured. He's as wanted dead here as he is at home. So I'm asking you to either shut up or get off my ship!”

The man became scared, stepping back onto the crowd.

“Do I make myself clear?!” Garth asked, shedding the last bit of command he had left in him.

The baker nodded, then swallowed a lump in his throat.

“Good.” Garth looked at the full crowd, General Zekeao pushed himself to the front. “Here is a re-cap: we are heading west over months of voyage. With the knowledge of Robin and I; we know that there is a great land mass with people who live in peaceful harmony with each other. Believe it if you will, or call it a legend, but that's what we’re after. I don't want any of you on this voyage; I was happy with Zekeao and I going solo, but through a look over I have realized we need more than just four hands. We have more than enough food for the voyage but if you complain: expect to be swimming back to shore. You should know I am a wanted man with nothing left to lose; I'm ready to die to prove that there is better life in this flat world.” Garth turned to the baker and looked him dead in the eyes. “Do I make myself clear?!”

“Aye!”

“Yeah!”

“Woohoo!”

The crowd cheered, scaring the fat baker.

“Then onward to sea!” Garth commanded.

Zekeao directed crew to their places: sails, lookout post, deck washing, etcetera. Garth walked back up to the upper deck joining Lily releasing the sail.

“Aye-ye captain!” She exclaimed.

 

A day past, they had traveled to sea with a crew hoping for a legend to become their reality. It came to nightfall and half the crew gathered to dine by the quarters. A potato, some carrots, a corn and a fruit of choice. Robin, Garth, the General, and Lily sat in the upper deck at the bolted down table by the rear of the ship, moonlight shun down on them, and were surrounded by dimly lit candles. They had the same food as the rest of the crew, Garth knew it to be respectful as well as keep the supply high.

Garth looked at each of the table’s members. Zekeao chowed down on his food, containing his full attention to his roll of corn, he had tied his hair back in a ponytail with wool wire. Lily ate slowly, cutting the cooked carrots into little bites. Robin pushed around her food, she stared at the edge of her plate.

“What’s the problem?” Garth asked after getting a drink from his glass. “Don't like vegetables?”

“No, it's not that,” Robin replied looking up to Garth. “I'm just thinking of something that's hard to say.”

“I get it,” Garth continued, “You don't like the open water and are afraid to tell us to head back?” Garth was wishing she would decide to leave, he had no problem turning back.

“Or do you have a lover back home that misses you?” General Zekeao interjected, trying to start a laugh in a serious situation.

“Guys stop!” Lily said loudly.

“No its ok.” Robin slid back into her wooden chair. “I'm going to have to say it if we are going to be on a long journey together”

“What is it?” Garth said sternly, “Speak.”

“I-I,” Robin stuttered, “It's hard to say it, and even then I wouldn't judge you for not believing. I didn't believe it when I first heard it.”

“Speak Witch or I'll throw you off the boat.” Garth said threateningly.

“See now I don't want to say it,” She said disheartening, slouching into her chair. “You’d throw me off even when you know.”

“You may be wrong, he let you stay on the ship in the first place,” Zekeao admitted.

“Yes but what if this is the reason to throw me off now,” Robin rebutted.

“Wait do you know what she’s talking about, General?” Garth asked angrily. Zekeao shook his head.

“Robin just tell them,” Lily spoke softly, scared.

“I’ve-”

“So she knows?” Garth went on, pointing to Lily.

“Let me-”

“I'm _starting_ to think this is going to go bad.”

“No-”

“You better explain yourself very carefully.”

“That's what I'm trying to do!”

“Maybe you should let her speak Garth,” Zekeao said.

“But look at her she can’t,” Garth continued, “she scared to say a word-”

“Let her speak!” Lily yelled. Zekeao shivered in his seat, no one had ever heard her use that type of stern voice before. “Thank you,” she whispered as she tried to hide in her chair.

“Um-so,” Robin tried speaking, there was an awkward silence as Robin sat, General Zekeao stared at his food, and Garth sat patiently waiting for an appropriate response. “so when I said I would get to the west ‘in this life or the next’ I wasn't joking, I've lived in the west in a time long after this one, and not only once.”

“So that's how you know?” Zekeao asked.

“But how did you _live_?” Garth asked.

“I've been cursed; I am to live the same life a thousand times and anyone who cares about me will be brought into the land of Afterlives Judgement.”

“What? What curse? Afterlives judgment? What are those things?” Garth asked.

“The curse was giving to me in a life I cannot remember, and I've never seen what Afterlives Judgement looks like,” Robin admitted.

“That clears up things,” Garth sarcastically said.

“You are unlucky to find me now,” Robin apologized, “I have never lived in a year before this one.” She stared at her potato on her plate. “In another time and universe people wrote books about my coming and warned people to shun me, but there is always that one fellow who is naïve.”

“How do all these lives start?” Zekeao asked scared, but interested and invested.

“Well...” she swallowed, “two things: one, I'm born without parents. Two, it’s a roll of a dice to see if I become born with amnesia or not, if I come into another life after forgetting, and I'm to remember again, it's like a book of my life is placed right under my nose and I'm to read as much as I can in what feels like a minute.”

“That's why she took care of me,” Lily spoke, “she saw my life the same as hers.”

“Then why live a life?” Garth said thoughtlessly.

“Because the pain of death and rebirth is unbearable!” Robin said angry. “I cannot survive not having someone care for me, I'll go insane, but with my godparents who find me every time, I try my best make them hate me. Luckily this time they hated pirates to death.”

Garth swiveled in his seat. “So what do you know about the west?”

“I lived centuries from now, in the great land in the west,” Robin answered, “I lived with my husband, and he was abusive so I knew he was a perfect candidate. He beat me and assaulted me and set me up with his co-worker once, and I had to take it because no one else should endure that demon, I took the biller for everyone else.” Robin began to tear up. “But one day true monsters crept from the ground and destroyed the state. The government decided that they would destroy the whole state with this- _thing_ called the ‘atom bomb’, which would kill everything over the distance of eight kilometers, the government thought we were all dead before, but we weren't dead!” Robin shouted those last words, slamming her fist on the table.

Everyone sat awed including Lily. Robin never spoke this story to her. Everyone felt uneasy and sad as they sat feeling sorry for Robin.

“But get this!” Robin laughed out of her frown. “The bastard saved me! The fucking monster had a heart. My husband put me in a capsule that was tested against the atom bomb in the place where he worked and he put _me_ in it.” She flipped her plate in rage. “WHY DIDN'T HE SAVE HIMSELF!? WHY ME-E-e-e!?” She fell to the floor crying in the palms of her hands. Everyone sat speechless.

“I think that's enough Robin,” Lily said empathetic.

“No,” Robin insisted, “I need to tell this story.” Robin stumbled back into her seat, wiping tears from her eyes. “I was awakened back into the world one hundred years after the explosion and I was found by a woman adventuring the world trying to find knowledge of science, trying to revive the civilization almost forgotten. My chamber somehow opened on its own. The woman was trapped under rubble of an old crumbling building below my two feet.”

“How did you survive for one hundred years?” Zekeao asked.

“Magic?” Garth added.

“Ha, no,” Robin laughed, “the people years from now stop believing magic even exists; I was frozen and physically dead for that time. It felt exactly how it does every time I really die and come back.” Robin paused for some time, she reached for the plate on the floor. General Zekeao and Lily tried to return to their food.

“So have you ever died young?” Garth asked thinking Robin was finished with her story. New tensions grew in the air and Zekeao could feel it.

“Yes; I had godparents who, lucky weren't fond of me to start,” Robin re-coursed, “then one day I was on my own and I found an older man who had a strange fond for girls like me.” She stopped to collect thoughts. Her brows narrowed and she stared at the table. “I think my soul destroyed that memory because I can't remember anything afterwards.”

“What do you mean by ‘to live the same life’?” Garth asked, taking a bite out of his cooked potato. “What's the same about each life?”

“I am found by a married couple who adopt me,” Robin explained, “People learn about my curse and or someone writes about that life, then I die a painful death.”

“Very cookie cutter,” Garth replied.

“Yes,” Robin said annoyed, “there is a lot of changing variables the curse cannot control.”

“Like you being a witch?” Garth asked in quick response.

“My godparents were sorcerers,” Robin answered angrily, “I was under their teaching for most of this life. Maybe I can show you some spells I know! What are you afraid of Garth? Betrayal? Death? Or maybe spiders?”

“I don't fear anything,” Garth admitted acting tough.

“But you surly get worried around ‘witches’ and ‘pirates’,” Robin said.

“It's a hatred not a fear. The greatest warrior does not fear his opponents, but he can worry about what they will do.”

“And what do you worry I will do, Viking?” Robin asked with a smirk on her face.

“I'm worried that you are a pretty good actor and know how to convince people to look at you kindly.” Garth answered fiercely. “But you'll never get to me.”

“Sure I won't.”

 

Makurow walked out onto the land once called ‘The Greylands’. The Wonderer crawled through the flowers inhabiting the land. Red flowers, blue flowers, grey flowers, yellow flowers; but no orange flowers. Not a single one. The aroma of pretty flowers circled the air. The Wonderer dug. He dug through the soft dirt with his monster claws. It frustrated him; _the Greylands were never this ‘soft’,_ he thought. The Wonderer turned to Makurow with the look of despair in his eyes.

“Where is the light?” The Wonderer pleaded. “Where did the light go?” Makurow turned his back to Wonder and faced the dome building. Zip had probably been holding onto a slab of light, a ‘core’, staring out the window at the beast pleading for his only salvation to return, but Makurow couldn't tell Wonder that his so called _Soldier of Light_ has drained every bit of it from him, for his own selfish needs.

“It's no longer here,” Makurow said softly.

“I cannot believe that,” Wonder refused.

“We've repelled the darkness, thanks to the light.”

“What is repelling the darkness when there isn’t any more light to save?” The Wonderer asked. “You are on your own, _Maker,_ I will have no more of this crusade.” The Wonderer walked away from Makurow, kicking dirt behind him.

“Wonder-”

“Do not call me Wonderer anymore,” The beast said, cutting off Makurow. “I have nothing to care about learning anymore, for now I am a walking book through the mist of misery that was laid upon by clouded knowledge, The Wanderer.”

The Wanderer walked towards the forest with pitch black trails. The darkness would truly await, welcoming his arrival.

Zip did not know The Greyland was the only thing keeping The Wanderer contempt, and neither did Makurow. The Wanderer would go to leave Zip unexpectedly alone with Makurow and his desires.

Makurow let him walk, he too would like to walk away from the dome building, but something seemed to pull him back. A force to some that would think had an origin of evil, but Makurow did not think that. He would continue to turn back to the small blue man operating a console in the glass globe, and he was fine with it.

Makurow took careless steps, crushing tall flowers by the stem. Makurow didn't find the group of petals on green beautiful anymore. It looked the same as any other tree and or bush to him.

He opened the hatch leading into the dome, the ladder became over used, the wood cracked and rocked as Makurow climbed. Still air pulled Makurow up. Zip sat at the console with the file of Nexus open.

“He left?” Sibious asked softly.

“Yes,” Makurow responded.

“And you didn't?”

“No.”

“Why not?” Zip turned to Makurow. He had red spots all over his arms; lava rocks burned on the table beside him. “You've always wanted to leave, now is your chance, it's two against one.”

“I've got unfinished business,” Makurow responded with more oomph. “The darkness is still out there and _we_ are going to destroy it.”

“Glad to hear you still think we are a team.” Zip twisted in his chair to face the console once again. “But I don't believe you still think that.” Zip pressed his hand against the console. Lights danced on the keyboard, the screen loaded three files, Sergeant, Soldier, and Nexus. “You betrayed me long ago; I know you left last night to find Thresh, you brought that axe-shotgun with you; did you find him?” The three robots from the file opened their capsules and marched out with a bit of personality.

“Are you ok?” Makurow said pulling his sword to his side.

“I've never been fine since the darkness attacked us unexpectedly.” Zip pressed buttons on the keyboard to set a sequence in the command. “I thought I was fine, but I was wrong.”

“You're corrupted?” Makurow asked pointing the sword to Zip’s back.

“I was fighting the darkness inside of me, and I thought I was going to be fine, but Wonderer told me that night was coming again; he's one of them as well.” Zip hovered his finger over the ‘enter’ key. “I thought your two robots were good enough, but they weren't. I was killed and you tried to bring me back with your ‘light’, but instead you killed whatever soul was left in me. Now I'm just a shell of darkness.” Zip pushed on the enter key. The three robots behind Makurow stood up straight. Soldier pulled out his sword, Nexus and Sergeant aimed their guns at Makurow, thoughtlessly. “This is what happens when you don't give them personalities, they're easier to control.” Makurow looked at the exit hatch left open. “Now they’re my hell dogs.” Zip slammed his fist on the keyboard setting off the command set. “Kill him!”

Sergeant charged up its cannon and Nexus rapid fired at Makurow. Lasers burned through Makurow as he stumbled to the hatch. Bullets burned, but did not disrupt, Makurow was fully functioning even after lasers pierced his flesh. His titanium bone was indestructible to little lasers, but Makurow was still scared. Sergeant fired the cannon at Makurow as he slipped through the hatch. The giant plasma shot burned the hatch shut, leaving no exit from the inside.

Soldier dug its sword in the metal hatch, trying to cut through. Nexus and Sergeant moved to the window overlooking Makurow's escape route. They were mindless, giving no care to the glass in front of them. Nexus punched a hole through the window. Glass shard rained on Makurow as he ran. _No more trust_ , he thought while brushing shards off his back. _No more friends_. The sound of metal boots chased behind Makurow. Soldier had cut through the sealed hatch and began pursuing its prey.

Makurow turned to face Soldier. Nexus rained fire on Makurow while Sergeant recharged the arm cannon. Makurow raised his left hand to Soldier. He wasn't going to run from _this_ fight. Power built up in his body, but this time it came accompanied with a chilling cast of voices in his head.

“Do not build an army,” The voice of the Guardian spoke.

“Once you realize this you can find me,” Makurow’s only friend said.

“Man of conduction,” The Guardian spoke again.

“You just absorbed the light, now push back the darkness,” the Wanderer explained.

“but the light cannot protect you from the darkness,” Snake's voice added.

Makurow charged up to fire a shot of electricity at Soldier, lightning tendrils crawled out of his palms, ready to fire, but Sergeant shot first. A plasma shot blew right through Makurow’s left arm, leaving a hole in his shoulder and it dangled by its tendons.

Makurow turned to run. Soldier chased him, Nexus did not hold back the fire, and Sergeant got ready to blow up Makurow again. He ran to the dark forest. He hoped the darkness there would be more forgiving there. Soldier swung mercilessly behind him.

Makurow had cleared the tree line. Darkness covers Makurow like a warm blanket; Sergeant got a final shot off, vaporizing Makurow’s left foot right to the bone. He stumbled into the safety of the darkness. Zip controlled Soldier to evade the pitch black.

Makurow lied in the pure darkness. Whispers and slow movement surrounded him.

“You see now?” A comforting voice asked him. “The light is evil.”

“Yes,” Makurow responded, “but I'm not going to get rid of my light, it's the only thing able to destroy Zip and my creations.”

“Don't worry we got this.”

“Thresh?” Makurow called to.

“Yes?” Thresh said.

“I think they got me.” Makurow lied weak and injured, unable to move from the pain flowing through him.

“Don't worry we’ll patch you up,” Snake butted in.


	11. Making progress

“And that was the last time I saw Makurow afraid and dumbfounded. No more darkness. No more light. He would vow to destroy anyone who had hurt him. Sadly, I was one of them,” The Wanderer spoke, “I wasn't saving myself by leaving Zip’s evil plan. I had the ability to stop Zip, but instead I left it be.”

“Then why did you return to Zip?” Sergeant asked.

“Because he changed after the fall of the factory.” The Wanderer explained.

“We were outnumbered,” Nexus added, “minions of darkness, And Thresh and Makurow to accompany them, and we weren't even fighting them.”

“Yes but how did he change?” Sergeant asked recalling the tragedy.

Zip turned on every robots’ personality. Sergeant, Soldier, and Nexus were successful, however there was some defects. None were small defects, robots named Storm, Pyro, and Evolve wouldn't comply because Makurow figured out how to lock out their specific personalities. Drillbit’s personality glitched, causing him to storm off speaking of ‘purpose’ and ‘recollection’ as he destroyed the nature around him.

‘Team’ _,_ Zip called it. ‘The Hero Team’. They were responsible for saving the world from the impurities like Makurow and Thresh, but they never expected the impurities to think the same for them. ‘Factory base Alpha’ Zip called the glass dome base in the middle of the world.

Makurow came back for revenge, he had his arm healed back on by Snake's power and a metal foot replacement as a gift from Thresh. Makurow had traded gifts with him when he was found in the dark forest by Snake and Thresh. Thresh really liked his gift, a vintage looking shotgun with an ax welded onto the barrel. Bullets of darkness slept in the shotguns action.

Makurow built a gun for himself that could concentrate his electric power into a charged, controlled shot. His tesla rifle fired stronger than Sergeant’s arm cannon, and charged quicker.

The fall of the factory was deeper than you believe. Drillbit walked up the silent volcano that lied past the dark swamp and its high stone wall. He drilled into the volcano, he heard Makurow was invincible and believed he, himself, was as well. The volcano erupted sending Drillbit to his fiery grave.

The volcano's eruption caused cracks to form in the land around the factory, lava flowed from them and the darkness legions took it as a chance to attack. They had no thought, they were worse than the robots. Snake knew this.

Makurow joined the charge, if he could beat the lava and the minions to the factory, he could kill Zip himself.

Makurow sprinted towards the factory, he was miles away but he gained his superhuman speed he has always had deep inside him. There was no doubt he was the first one to the factory.

Soldier met with him outside the factory, standing guard. Makurow was ready to fight this time. Sergeant and Nexus climbed down from the dome, they had remembered and respected the existence of the glass on the floor above. Makurow walked towards Soldier with pride. Makurow swung from over his left shoulder, slicing down on Soldier. Soldier pressed his round gold shield against Makurow’s sword, then pushed it up to swing his sword underneath.

Makurow had forgotten that he had taught Soldier all his moves to progress his combat, but now Zip had turned on their personalities; all Makurow had to do was fine the weaknesses within them. Soldier stood professional, like he knew exactly how to handle a sword and shield.

Makurow backed off and peered over the small golden robot. Sergeant and Nexus readied their weapons. Sergeant stood cocky, not like long ago when he looked fake and controlled, he was free now. Nexus stood proud and in charge. He pointed his gun not to just fire, but do direct the ‘team's’ actions.

Makurow looked back at Soldier, he had his visor over his helmet. Zip had crafted helmets for the robots, Makurow like the idea of faceless warriors, but it seemed Zip did not. Soldier had a Japanese samurai looking helmet, a scary frown with sharp narrow eyes, layered metal circled the helmet from the top, with small horns on the top. Sergeant had helmet with etching of lightning pulling to the back, his eye holes were big but didn't contain a mouth. Nexus had more of a headgear helmet, a metal cap on top with gizmos on the side and a mouth guard.

Makurow drew his gun. Soldier had no experience with that and Makurow needed to fire before Sergeant could. The gun charged quickly, half the time it took for Soldier to ready his shield. Makurow didn't hesitate to fire, he gained a hatred for his own creation. It wasn't the fact that they were being controlled to betray him, but the fact that they no longer felt like they were his own creations, for there were too many adjustments. The lightning fire hit Soldier's shield and absorbed on impact. Electricity flowed through Soldier's body, locking up each joint.

Makurow took this time to swing his sword. With the dull blade he cut Soldier to the ground. His corpse shook as currents flowed up and down him.

“Soldier, no!” Sergeant yelled. He fired the charged cannon. Makurow ducked and swerved to the side, dodging the plasma shot. Makurow aimed his gun again and fired at Sergeant. Nexus blocked the shot with his shield; Makurow designed Nexus’ multi-shield with rubber connection.

Nexus and Sergeant had built in weapons for hands. Nexus had his multi-shield built into the left arm, with the rubber connection, Makurow designed the shield to have full limitless rotation, the only restriction, sadly, was the wrist. Sergeant had his right forearm become a giant gun. Two joints only, one in the elbow and the other in the shoulder. For the two the other hands were fully opposable fingers on a normal looking hand.

Soldier had two free hands, he had a sheath for the sword on his back and a holster for his shield as well.

Nexus pointed to a spot beside Makurow, then he ran to a spot adjacent to it. They were trying to separate Makurow’s aim while blocking the path to the factory.

Lava ran over the hill side and cracks formed by the dark forest. Fire spread to it and old darkness was lit by deaths lantern.

Makurow aimed at Sergeant again. Nexus would be hard to hit and Sergeant was going to hit hard. Makurow sent electric current through a metal ball in his palm. The ball was hooked up to the gun that was clamped to his wrist. It was the same idea as Sergeant's arm cannon but had better movement on the wrist. There was a smaller cannon on the front, with an electric coil inside.

Makurow shot at Sergeant. Sergeant dodged the shot but had to restart charging the arm cannon. Makurow was trying to buy time; he brought his sword to the opposite hip, trying to cut the robot half his size by the chest. Makurow charged forward and swung at Nexus. Nexus moved to the side avoiding blocking the sword with his shield. Nexus noticed that Makurow’s sword had become sharper as it swung in the light. Nexus swung his arm, throwing the shield against Makurow as the saws on the shield spun.

Makurow put his arm out, catching the saw against his arm. The saw cut through his skin like butter, but stopped at the solid bone. Makurow could feel his nerves clench in pain as they were cut. Pain was the only normal thing to Makurow. Electricity like blood flowed in him, bones made from almost invincible metal, face with wires copying hair, no mouth but a jaw and voice moved, and wide platform feet. Well, foot. The other foot was replaced with more boot like look.

Makurow smacked his gun against the shield, pushing it aside. Nexus shuffled back and aimed the gun at Makurow. Sergeant's gun charged in the background. Makurow had no sense of the direction Sergeant was. Makurow unhooked the gun from his hand and latched it to his left hip. He spun to his backside and sprayed lightning all around him. It was a weaker power but did its job efficiently. Sergeant blocked lightning bolts with his electric sword. The swords conductive base became charged by Makurow’s power.

Makurow found himself fighting three machines built to counter him. They stood ready and determined. Soldier stood up shaking off the damage. It was useless for Makurow to fight them any longer for the wave of destruction was among them and had no sympathy for Makurow’s cause. Makurow charged at the factory, Zip awaited his sword.

Soldier stood to block his path. Sword and shield at the ready but hesitating to stay in the same spot. Makurow held his sword high as he ran. Soldier stood steady. It was a game of chicken, Makurow could truly do damage but Soldier was strong enough to block it, but if Makurow were to fire lightning, Soldier would have a problem. If Soldier were to dodge the lightning, he would have a clear attack at Makurow’s open arm. Soldier sword was made from the same plasma Sergeant uses in his cannon. The same plasma able to cut through his titanium bone.

It was his only choice. Makurow held onto the metal ball inside his gun. He aimed it directly at Soldier. He held the lighting within him not letting a single charge go. Makurow saw the fear in Soldier's fake eyes. He would move and attack his arm and Makurow wouldn't allow it.

Soldier moved to Makurow’s right, lowering his shield and holding his sword high. Makurow planted his right foot down and swung his left foot behind him. He rotated his hips and brought his sword near his chest and used his whole body to swing the sword around to Soldier's body. Soldier was open, his shield too far away for him to protect himself.

Makurow had a clear shot destroying Soldier by the waist. Soldier dropped both his weapons as his body separated from his legs. Makurow moved away from the mangled robot and pursued the factory. Makurow noticed the statues holding the dome up were darker in colour and cracks formed on the torso; something from inside the factory was draining their light. Zip sat inside scared typing into the console commands to stop Makurow.

Sergeant charged his cannon, he kneeled on the ground trying to steady his aim. Makurow had made great distance away from Sergeant and Nexus. Nexus chased after Makurow trying to put himself in between him and the factory. Soldier crawled out of the way to safety.

“You monster!” Sergeant yelled before firing his gun.

“Ignore Soldier,” Nexus commanded, “stop him!”

“Move aside machine,” Makurow spoke holding his anger inward. “I will destroy you if you try to stand in my way.”

“No deal jerk,” Sergeant said, “we are taking you down.”

“You really think you can stop me?” Makurow asked turning his head to Sergeant. He had stopped as Nexus cut in front of him.

“Move in Sergeant!” Nexus commanded.

“When I made you the brains of the robots I didn't want you this demanding,” Makurow said annoyed.

“We are not ‘the robots’,” Sergeant corrected, “we are the ‘Heroes’!” Sergeant ran at Makurow keeping his gun low.

Makurow swung his sword at Nexus, letting the sword sharpen on the light. Nexus blocked with his shield, then repeated trying to press the saws against Makurow’s skin. Makurow moved, holding the tip of his sword against the shield to guide his movement. The shield jitters and locked as it rotated on Nexus’ wrist. Makurow pushed his sword hard against the shield, throwing Nexus off balance, then he slashed quickly at Nexus.

His shoulder caught the blade, dislocating it from his arm. Makurow removed the sword from Nexus’ shoulder then sprinted to the factory feet away, Sergeant chased closely. Sergeant leaped at Makurow. Using his gun’s recoil to propel him closer, he swung his electric sword to Makurow’s back. Current flowed through his spine and disrupted his movement for a second. Sergeant noticed this, and Nexus did as well.

“Sergeant!” Nexus yelled falling behind. “Surge!”

Sergeant didn't hesitate to stab himself with the electric sword, right in the abdomen. Lightning discharged quickly, sending bolts firing rapidly and sporadically. A wave of energy flowed off Sergeant, creating a power surge, that disrupts anything near Sergeant, including himself. The power surge hit Makurow, making him weak and collapse.

Heat from lava approached the battle. Scratching claws climbed over the valley, enemies of darkness sent their army to raid the camp. Makurow scooted slowly towards the ladder close enough to touch him. Nexus helped Sergeant to his feet as his body healed from the surge. Makurow was too weak to fight anymore, as well as take the life from Zip.

Monster marched to the music of molten rocks popping. Makurow hooked his arm around the step of the ladder, his body slowly regained strength. Set of footsteps approached him. Sergeant came with handcuffs made from titanium steel. Nexus used his equipment to repair Soldier's body. Makurow pushed himself up and leaned back on the ladder. Sergeant walked carefully keeping a safe distance as he reached for Makurow’s hands. Makurow dropped his sword, reaching out to Sergeant.

“Why did _your_ lightning affect me?” Makurow spoke weak.

“I don't know, chief,” Sergeant replied jokingly, “you designed me.”

“I did?” Makurow stared into the eye sockets of Sergeant's helmet. A whispering laugh hid deep inside them. Sergeant cuffed Makurow's right wrist, it held tight restricting his greater movement. Sergeant pulled the cuffs to the other hand. “No,” Makurow whispered, “she did.”

Makurow tugged hard on the cuffs pulling Sergeant's chest to his palm. Makurow masked his weakness as a façade. He wasn't weak anymore. Makurow grabbed the core on Sergeant's chest and sent electrical currents through his body. Sergeant's body wiggled and collapsed to the ground. A great thud as thick metal hit the hard ground. The cuffs released off his wrist.

Makurow grabbed his sword and pressed it against his hip as he climbed up the ladder. The entrance was wide open with melted metal edges. Makurow climbed two steps up the twenty-foot ladder and cleared it. Zip waited for him at the top, with the hammer in his hands. It was cracked and worn out. Makurow sat at the edge of the ladder waiting for Zip's reaction.

“So,” Zip sighed, “you're back.”

“I hope you are not going to stop me.” Makurow adjusted his grip on the ledge.

“I won't be giving back your robots.” Zip moved back from the ledge letting Makurow climb up freely.

“I won't be needing them,” Makurow said threateningly, pulling himself up.

“No, I mean they will be still mine after you deal with me.” Zip relaxed his hammer arm. “You will still have to deal with _all_ of them yourself.”

 _No problem,_ Makurow thought.

“It will be harder than you think.” Zip stepped into the light by the window. His colour was lighter and the blue he used to hold was almost untraceable. His right arm contained patches of burned off skin.

“You're insane.” Makurow brought his sword up behind his head and sliced down at Zip.

 

“So it's over for him?” Theo asks, scanning the story that I wrote.

“Maybe,” I reply trying to make him read more. I had felt bad for making fun of Theo’s ‘Book of everything’. It was, in fact, a good idea and maybe I felt a little jealous that I hadn’t thought of it first. So I, in turn, tried continuing my story that I was writing long ago. I had not only continued writing but wrote in a character I saw Theo drawing, but I changed it up a bit for my liking. The blue leader of a hero group, out to suppress evil. I called him ‘Ranger’.

“So how are they going to get out of there?” Theo asks, reaching the end of whatever I had wrote.

“They don't.”

“No!” Theo yells felling invested.

“Whoa,” I react, “sorry Theo that's how it goes.” Theodor took out a notebook and wrote a note in it. “What was that for?”

“Just because you don't have a happy ending,” Theo says confidently, “doesn't mean I can't write one.”

“But you’ll be stealing my story.”

“Don't worry, I’ll write a whole different story from it.”

“What about the story you are already writing?” I ask.

“Lily can wait.” Theo said quickly.

“Who?”

“Lily,” Theo says not feeling sure, “I named a character after a girl you _thought_ you saw; haven't you read it?”

“No, I haven't.”

“Wow I feel loved.” Theo says sarcastically.

“Shut up,” I say jokingly, “go write your dumb version.”

Theodor skipped away happily.

 

The waves soothed Garth to sleep. Garth's _pirate_ crew tossed and turned in the quarters on the second highest level of the boat. The door creaking open awaking Garth and drew his attention. He slowly rose from his bed and walked to the door left open. On his way he noticed Robin’s bed was empty. Empty as in: no sheets, no pillow, no mattress; just a frame.

Garth passed through the door closing it behind him gently. The floor above was quiet; the night sky was visible from the base of the stairs. The twinkling stars of Orion's Belt guided Garth up the stairs. Robin's silhouette appeared and quickly tied the bed sheet to each end of the rail up top. Like a curtain the sheet covered the exit. Garth pushed through with caution. Robin sat at the mattress turned over with the wooden plank that was sewn into it facing up. Like a table, Robin had candles scattered on top. She sat on her pillow, legs crossed and her hands against her ankles. She was meditating.

“Robin,” Garth whispered for her attention. She opened one eye curiously.

“I don't like sleeping in a room with all those men,” Robin said fine, “I feel threatened.”

“Now you know how I feel with you on board, and with everyone else.” Garth replied.

“Did you bring a pillow,” Robin asked looking at Garth's hands. “If you did I would kindly ask you to join me.”

“I don't have any intention of joining you for anything.”

“Why don't I continue telling one of my stories.” Robin gave a welcoming smile that was lit up by the dancing candlelights. “It'll help pass the time and put me to sleep, please?” She said with a desperate moan. Garth turned away from Robin and left down the stairs.

He shoved the sheet aside and pushed into the quarters, then placed himself in his bed. He laid on top of the sheet staring at Robin’s empty bed frame by the door. She was no interest for him, but something gravitated Garth towards her every single day. He didn't care about the heir witch, she was only useful for knowing more about their destination than anyone else, if she did know about it. Fodder.

Garth threw himself to his side trying to bury his head into the pillow. _She's nothing_ , he thought. He couldn't close his eyes, not even the rocking waves could put him to sleep. He stared at Lily sleeping in the bed beside him. Robin was right, it was concerning that two girls were sleeping in the same room as dozen of men. Months at sea could make a man go mad.

Garth grabbed his cloak by the bedside and approached the exit door once again.

Robin awaited Garth to return, almost knowingly he would do so. Garth turned at the top of the stairs and walked away from Robin, moving toward the Generals quarters. Robin sat quiet and patient.

Garth marched into the quarters trying to awake Zekeao. He sprung up scared.

“General we need to talk.” Garth stood in the doorway.

“Alright,” Zekeao said annoyed but willing, “close the door on the way in.”

 

Garth walked to Robin slowly. Trying to make as little noise that he could while walking. She heard. She smiled happily.

“So,” Robin spoke, “you're back.”

“Where can I sit?” Garth asked gently.

“If you don't like the hard wooden floor, you can sit by me,” Robin proposed, gesturing to her side. “Which I recommend you do because the floor is really harsh on the butt.” Robin laughed.

Garth obliged, circling around the ‘table’ and made his way to Robin.

“Don't worry I don't make up much space on this pillow,” Robin ensured. Garth lowered himself down beside Robin. “It's awfully beautiful out tonight, isn't it?”

“Yes it is,” Garth agreed, “are you cold?” Garth noticed Robin shivered a bit and held her arms close to her body.

“No I’m fine.” Robin tried to hide being cold.

“Here.” Garth removed the cloak from his shoulders and draped it over Robin's.

“That's _awfully_ nice of you,” Robin smiled, “didn't think you cared about me.”

“I don't,” Garth said, recalling her curse. “Tell me about the west.” Garth could feel the energy emitting from her body.

“It's gorgeous,” She spoke, “especially at this time. The grass is green, the hills are filled with trees, the only people who live there are one with nature, it's gorgeous.”

“What are the people like?”

“They don't speak our language, sadly, but are very friendly. They do learn in the future when the Easterners travel to the west and deprive the land of its beauty, and made it into their own personal sandbox.” Garth gave Robin glaringly confused look. “Sorry I got off track. You live so many lives you start to hold stupid grudges.”

“Do you know their language?” Garth asked.

“No,” Robin quickly replied, “I unlucky haven't had a life with them.”

“So you know every language you've encountered?”

“As long as I lived learning it.”

“Tell me something in some other language.”

“You can't ask me that.” Robin elbowed Garth's stomach. “That's such an awkward thing to ask.” Garth was so lost in conversation he never noticed Robin cuddling up against him. They sat in the dimming lights, wax filling the holder, and the two pondered reality.

“Wouldn't knowing all those languages get confusing?”

“Not really,” Robin said, pulling Garth's arm around her. “It's being simply bilingual, as long as I get some practice in ahead of time I could pull off a conversation with someone in a language I-*yawn*-haven't spoken in a couple lifetimes.”

“You should go to bed,” Garth advised, “were going to need you tomorrow; I've made an arrangement with the General about you and Lily sleeping together in the Generals quarters. Away from the men and able to lock the door.”

“That's _awfully_ kind of you,” Robin muttered as she grew tired, “tell me about yourself I've talked enough.”

“There isn't much to say,” Garth said trying to recall any significance in his past. “My parents were warriors and I wanted to grow up to be like them. They passed away and I became known as the greatest sword and arm in the entire country.”

Robin snored, she was fast asleep. Garth picked up her light body and brought her to the General’s quarters. Zekeao had made the bed nice for her arrival. Garth slid Robin softly into the sheet.

“Don't worry I'll protect Lily tonight,” Garth whispered.

Garth backed out of the room closing the door gently. He pressed his hand against the door as he turned around. Zekeao stood creepily watching.

“You care about her,” Zekeao spoke, “don't you?”

“Something was so innocent about her tonight.” Garth wiped the tired tears from his eyes. “Maybe I felt a little sorry for what I did last evening.”

“A little?” Zekeao said with a smile, “you two were all over each other; I think you really do care about her.”

“And?”

“Well if you believe that she is truly cursed you are in trouble because ‘Afterlives Judgement’ doesn't sound too fun,” Zekeao said concerned.

“We don't know anything about that.”

“Yes, but it seems that there isn't anything positive about the curse; just a bunch of negatives.”

“General,” Garth interrupted, “I'm very tired, let us go to bed and discuss this tomorrow.”

“Alright then.”


	12. FUNeral

Zip dodged the attack, he was sly and fast. Makurow had never fought against Zip so everything was new about that fight. Zip slid around Makurow, reaching for a welding helmet by a workbench. He placed it over his head.

“Game on!” Zip yelled.

Makurow swung his sword wildly, trying to hit the fly in the room. Zip was untouchable, after each swing he retaliated and bashed Makurow with his hammer. Makurow became irritated. His swings became more inaccurate. Zip continued bashing Makurow freely. The sound of hard metal chimed against solid titanium. Makurow was skinned in the legs and arms. Zip and Nexus had chipped away his soft outer layer and left him with skinny bones. It became harder for Makurow to hold his sword and the gun strapped to his wrist loosened.

Makurow fired at Zip. Zip once again dodged each attack. A burning rage built up in Makurow. Electricity flowed rapidly through his bones. His bare bones shun brighter than they ever were. Makurow let out a war cry. His body created an electric nova all around him. Lightning bolts chained to electronics and metal scattered around. An electric bolt chained to Zip's helmet, passing through the vertical holes, burning Zip's face. He grabbed his face in pain and stumbled to the console. He looked lost.

Makurow swung at blind Zip, Soldier stepped to help, blocking the sword. Nexus and Sergeant jumped in and escorted Zip out of the building through the broken glass. They came out of nowhere.

“So this is why you call them heroes?” Makurow asked Zip.

“Goodbye Maker.” Zip pressed a button on the console. A bunker opened up in the background. A contraption bigger than the base arose from the ground below them.

“What is that?”

“Were taking to the sky with Hero Base Beta.” Zip said as Nexus and Sergeant escorted him out.

“Makurow,” Soldier spoke out, “try to stop us now; you can't fly.”

Makurow angrily tried to pass Soldier, but he pushed him back with his shield. Zip entered into the Hero Base Beta. It had three compartments, the main compartment in the middle, with all the engines inside and the command center at the top, five stories high. The left compartment was the same size as the middle, but had one less level and was adjacent to it, making a ‘L’ shape, it also had an open space like a runway on top. The right compartment was a tall thin cylindrical building, going higher than the middle compartment and carried a bigger engine under it.

Zip managed to reach the top quickly with Nexus and Sergeant.

“How did you make that so quickly?” Makurow asked Soldier angrily.

“We had an extra core that happened to be as smart as a supercomputer,” Soldier explained, keeping his distance. “So we hooked him up to an extra computer and he invented a safer more efficient Hero Base.” Makurow became angrier as Soldier spoke.

“I will take you down no matter where you stand.” Makurow threw his sword, from his chest, at Soldier.

Soldier moved fast, pressing his shield against the flying knife. Makurow charged at Soldier as he was distracted keeping his arms low. He let electric tendrils flow from his fingertips, engulfing Soldier in power voltage. Soldier's body crumpled to the floor.

“Nothing will stand in my way,” Makurow spoke down to Soldier defeated.

Makurow picked up his sword and leaped through the window. The sky station prepared to take off, the engines started up and fire burned below. Lava surrounded both Hero Bases. Heat caused sweat to glisten off Makurow regenerating skin. His skin was nearly fully revived. Zip sent Sergeant down to slow Makurow. There was no way Makurow could stop them when they were so close to escaping. Sergeant jumped off sixty-six feet in the air. He pressed his heels into the ground letting his gravitational boots suppress the landing force.

Sergeant kept his sword close to his body to catch any flying lightning bolts, but Makurow didn't have any intentions to throw any. Makurow approached Sergeant, dragging his sword on the ground. He was trying to scare Sergeant, and it was working. Sergeant was hesitating to step back. Sergeant pointed his cannon at Makurow. Makurow pointed his gun back. The gun’s clamp had molded into Makurow’s skin leaving it secure.

“As soon as you charge that gun,” Makurow argued, “I'll fire.”

“As long as I give enough time,” Sergeant spoke, “my life is worth it.”

“Foolish,” Makurow yelled, “you think Sibious care about your life. He left Soldier to die to my hands.”

“It was a strategic choice.”

“It was unnecessary, you could have all gotten on that ship and had me far behind. I designed you to work together to solve any problem; separated you're useless.” Makurow let small amount of power flow to the gun, he was hesitating to fire.

The lava was closer than ever. Makurow’s skin turned fiery red against the melting heat. His skin caught kindling flames.

“I'm not the man Sibious tells you I am, but try to stop me and I could be,” Makurow threatened.

Sergeant stepped back lowering his weapon. Makurow de-charged his gun, lowering it as well. The engines grew louder; it was time to take off.

*zzzzt* “stop him.” *zzzzt*

A voice spoke in Sergeant's ear. Sergeant lifted his gun once again and charged it immediately. Makurow reacted blasting Sergeant with an electric blast. Sergeant’s body locked and he collapsed to his knees.

“Do not stop me.” Makurow spat.

The Hero Base Alpha burned from the bottom up, leaving the inside a dome fireplace. Soldier pulled himself up by the window sill. He watched Sergeant collapsing to the ground.

“He's right,” Sergeant spoke into the comm’s, “we are useless facing him alone.” Makurow grabbed onto the ship about to take off. “Soldier go to Nexus; he can't defend Zip by himself.”

“I'm not going to leave you behind Sergeant,” Soldier replied weak.

Makurow scaled the building like an ape, only using one arm while the other held his sword tight. He tried using it as leverage but the sword was too large. The ship shook violently, ready to take off. Soldier scampered to Sergeant's aid, picking him up and carrying him to the ship. The door at the bottom of the ship was locked to keep Makurow out, but it locked Soldier and Sergeant out as well.

“Put me on your back,” Sergeant whispered softly, “I have enough strength to hold on.”

With mechanical strength, Soldier placed Sergeant over his shoulders. Sergeant locked his gravitational boots to Soldier's calves, putting it to maximum gravitational pull. Sergeant held onto the shield, tightly secured to Soldier's back.

“Open the door Zip!” Soldier yelled into the microphone.

“Stop him!” Zip replied back.

“You're going to get us killed!” Soldier spoke into the broadcast.

“Now you get it.” Makurow hung by one hand three stories above Soldier, yelling down. He threw himself to continue climbing. Soldier followed, placing his hands and feet carefully rather than fast and forcefully. The ship was janky, the supercomputer core didn't care much for outer visual and safety. Metal pieces stuck out jagged and sharp. Makurow grazed a few, cutting his lap.

Makurow was confused, there was no outside defenses to protect from attackers. No guns, no spikes, and no windows. Zip really expected to have no worries up high.

Makurow reached the top floor of the ship. It was the command center and the outer walls were mad with reinforced glass. Zip watched Makurow bashed the glass repeatedly with the hilt of his sword.

“Get him off it now Strontium,” Zip spoke to the computer.

“But there are friendlies on the wall too,” The computer responded in a digitized voice, the same as the robots had when they had no personality subroutine of their own. “I will be removing them as well in the process.”

“I don’t care,” Zip spoke with a hatred in his voice, “he matters more.”

The computer confirmed the command. Steel shutters dropped from a cover over top the glass. Makurow had made small progress on cracking the glass, but not enough. The shutters covered the glass, pushing Makurow off in the process. Makurow held tight, grabbing onto the top of the ship. The ship began to fly. Lava covered the ground for miles. The Hero Base Alpha melted into the molten rock. Makurow's body slowly changed back to his normal colours as he cooled down, passing through the grey stage. The ship rumbled as it took off. Blue fire burned out of the engines and pushed the ship high. Force pushed on Makurow, Soldier, and Sergeant outside, close to removing them from the side. The ship reached the clouds in seconds, passing through a viscous cloud. Water vapor washed Makurow’s cooling body. His shoulder and wounded thighs were still too hot. The quick change from hot to cold removed the white colour from his shoulders, leaving them bare grey.

The engines cut, decelerating the ship at an alarming rate. Makurow’s body felt lighter in the air. The ship flung the bodies off the side into the sky. The tight air hugged Makurow's cold skin.

Makurow flipped himself around and positioned himself facing downwards. The ship below him was large, but Makurow could see past it. Makurow could barely make out the position they were above. They were so high the field of lava was the size of Makurow's hands.

Soldier flew beside him, trying to move to place himself over the ships runway. Sergeant held on tight still, not letting go of the tightly strapped shield. Makurow turned to them. He spun his sword in his hand, getting ready to stab down as he lost his upward momentum. Soldier spotted Makurow in the corner of his eye.

Makurow pulled his arm down; he had a clear shot at Sergeant's back. Soldier pressed the buttons on the side of Sergeant's boots, releasing their gravitational pull towards his calves. Soldier picked up Sergeant's legs and threw him towards the ship. Soldier left himself open to Makurow, but he had saved another's life. The sword penetrated his chest, pushing all the way through to the swords hilt. Metal pieces broke and crumbled against the sword.

Soldier let out a painful grunt.

“Don't give me that,” Makurow insisted, “you are not man, you cannot feel pain.”

Makurow tried sliding the sword out of Soldier, but Soldier locked his hands on the sword. Soldier pulled on the sword, returning it to the deepest position. The hole in his chest became larger as the sword wiggled around. Makurow placed his palm against Soldier's shoulder.

The ship restarted the engines as Sergeant landed on the strip. Makurow and Soldier fell past the ship. Fire scorched Makurow as Soldier pivoted himself to aim Makurow at the jets. Makurow's burned red, fire cindered on his grey shoulders. The force from the engines propelled the two at an alarming rate. They accelerated faster than the rate of gravity.

Finally, Makurow removed the sword from Soldier. It had felt like Soldier had completely loosened his grip, allowing Makurow to do so. Makurow grabbed Soldier’s arm and spun him around. His arms flailed around, it seemed he had no reactionary control over them. Soldier's core was intact but the metal connecting to it was in shambles. Makurow stared at the lifeless body falling in front of him. _They aren't man_ , he thought trying to get a putrid image out of his head.

They passed the tree line and both crashed into the burning Hero Base Alpha. It was a burning shell that Soldier would occupy as his grave. Makurow scurried to look for an exit as the lava entered the highest floor in the building. Makurow stood unaffected by falling thousands of miles from the air, but Soldier's body scattered on impact, sending body parts flying everywhere. Soldier only contained a mutilated body and one arm. Makurow stared at Soldier. Lava approached his burning body. The core on his body stared back at Makurow giving him a guilty thought.

Makurow pulled his stopwatch off his hip. _The gift of one,_ Makurow thought to himself, _will be for another._ Makurow placed the stopwatch in Soldier's connected hand and forced one of his fingers to press the stop button. The timer started and Soldier's body vanished, as well as every other piece of him scattered around.

“That was not the side you should have been fighting on,” Makurow whispered to a vanished soul.

 

The neighbor

By Tomas Norman

I had a neighbor not too long ago who sadly passed away. He was always a kind man and I never had a problem with him, but one day my dad told me to keep my distance from him.

It was a normal day, maybe a little cold, but a normal day nonetheless. I walked home from school since it was just a couple of blocks away, so I always came home before my parents. I would have to pass my neighbor’s house since it was before mine and I had no problem with that. He had his garage open and he stood inside. I always saw him as the happy version of Scrooge, my dad called him useless. He would start projects but never finish them.

He tried making a nice outdoor pond for fishes, my dad told him it was a bad idea since we lived in the north and there would be long winter and terrible summers, but he wouldn't listen, so the fishes never made it and he never put in a water filter so the water was disgusting. It was in his backyard, easily visible from our houses windows. I thought it was pretty when it was first built. There were rocks stacked up and a mini waterfall that was the closest thing to ‘filtering’ the water.

I thought it worked because I remember seeing fishes swimming in the water, but I also remember seeing newer, bigger fishes swimming in a large translucent barrel that he never touched. Then a winter came and he drained the water and years past and he never touched it.

He stood in his open garage beside a blue truck that looked like it belonged on those television shows that wreck junk cars, and a giant camping trailer to accompany it on the driveway that I saw him sleeping in once or twice. There was, what my dad called ‘projects’, all over the garage, hoarded. I remember seeing the inside of his house it was nice, it looked like a house that belonged to a man who loved hunting. Mounted animal heads and antlers, wooden floors, brown walls, and a red brick fireplace. I never did think of him as a hoarder, but maybe he hid it well behind those garage doors.

I saw him stumbling and mumbling, he didn't look as jolly as he used to. I said hello. I found it funny that his name consisted of the first name being the same a kids cartoon character and the last name the same as an internet provider. He gave me a simple wave and wandered off.

A night before a drunk man drove through the neighborhood and through his fence. When my parents bought our house when he had already lived there. He posed the idea of putting up a fence and my father agrees with the idea. My father paid for professionals to put up the fence but my neighbor did it himself. The professionals told him to dig deep for the posts but my neighbor didn't, so when years later when someone carelessly drove through it and fell into the giant hole that used to be a pond, there was a change in mood.

My dad is a light sleeper so he heard the entire thing that night. He rushed next door and rang our neighbor awake. My dad argued with him, “if you weren't half-assing everything,” my dad said, “you wouldn't have to be dealing with this.” The man just wanted to sleep. He was old and tired to finish anything, it wasn't his fault. The ambulance came and the police interrogated my neighbor who was minutes from passing out. It was a long night for him.

It was an ordinary Tuesday. I ate dinner like normal and got ready to go out for my martial arts training up the street. My dad sat at the computer in the room that had a window that perfectly faced one of the neighbors’ that overlooked the bottom of the basement stairs. My dad browsed the internet for compliments of Russian car crashes caught on tape or something like that. I wished him goodbye and headed off.

My neighbor was on his driveway cleaning his camping trailer that had a ‘for sale’ sign on the back. I greeted him again for the second time today. He seemed happier than earlier that day so I think I greeted him as a way to check up on him.

“I see you're selling the trailer,” I commented.

“Yeah,” he said in his gritty voice, “I don't use it anymore.” Even though he never did. “So I'm trying to get rid of it.”

“That's good,” I said trying to sound positive.

“Yeah,” he repeated, “I see you're going to martial arts right now.”

“Yeah,” I confirmed, “but it doesn't start in another twenty minutes.”

“What degree are you?” He asked.

“Sixth.”

“Oh that's nice.” He smiled his old, crooked grin. “Well I got stuff to do and I better let you get going.”

I said farewell and left. I never think about conversation after they happen but this one wouldn't settle. I frequently thought about it while I trained and never understood why. I, to this day, still do not understand the significance of that talk.

A week past and I had long forgotten talking to my neighbor, as well, my dad wanted to speak with me. He asked me if I had seen our neighbor recently. I said not since last week, while neither of us remembered that he told me not to talk to my neighbor at the time. He kept quiet and went on his day.

A couple days past and a car came to visit my neighbor, my dad took this opportunity to check on them. We were working on the family car when he did so I went with him. A fat man exited a car, he had a small resemblance to our neighbor, the brother. He didn't look to happy and looked as if a rain cloud followed him.

“Hello,” my dad greeted, “how's it going?”

“Not to good,” he replied softly.

“I'm sorry to hear that,” my dad said in his rough European accent, “what happened?”

“I see you are neighbors, so I may as well tell you.” He looked down at his hands. “My sister is coming to visit our brother this week and called ahead of time and got no answer, so she tried again later, and again, and again, but still no answer, so she called me to come check on him and unfortunately we found him dead.” He spoke sad but not teary.

It was terrible news and my dad was shaken by it. We had seen him not too long ago alive and well. The man had also told us that he died falling down the stairs last Tuesday, and that turned my tanned father ghostly white. The further conversation seemed short and abrupt. My dad had felt like he didn't need to work further on the family car repairs that was halfway done. He closed the garage and pulled me inside. He walked over to the computer room and looked out the window. My mother walked in asking if we had finished our work early somehow. My dad interrupted her by telling the horrible news, but he had a burn in his throat that sounded that he knew something else.

He turned to my mother with tears in his eyes. “I saw him die,” my dad cried, “it was dark and I saw a shadow fall down the stairs leading to the basement and I thought nothing of it.”

“You never know dear.” My mom tried comforting him.

“No I do know,” he said violently, “all the details point to it being true. I saw our neighbor dying and did nothing about it!”

Months past and that house didn't feel right. Stuff was being finished. The falling deck was put back up. The truck and the trailer vanished, either sold or not. The terrible fence was replaced with professionally made ones, and me and my dad helped fill the hole in the backyard and they replaced it with a patio with beautiful furniture. Now completely different people moved in and we have never spoke about the previous tenant to them. I feel as though my dad still to this day, many years after, still holds the guilt of the day that he saw and I know he would still blame himself every single time, but I see something different. It seems that what that man wanted, in the end happened. The house on the outside became as beautiful as the inside always had.

I will never forget the day I heard his last voice, I could have been the last person he had talked to, and that stays with _me_ every single day. I am sad to say, however, that I do forget how his voice sounds, but his face and figure I will always remember.


	13. Epiphany

Zekeao didn't have much of a childhood. His father was a war General and his mother was killed when he was young, he never cared about his mother's absence, his father was fine enough raising him alone. His father was busy, though, having to raise a child and a nation's army was tough but it was easy for him. Zekeao idolized him, a perfect man who could do anything, and was, in Zekeao’s eyes, he could influence a world to his commands.

Zekeao trained under his wing until he was seventeen years of age, then a war rolled in. Fire flew from the sky's, flying over the cloud line. It came from the north with white men in steel suits charging on metal horses. Zekeao was willing to fight but his father refused.

“I can't believe you won't put me out there with all the others!” Zekeao said outraged in his native language.

“You will stay here as the last line of reinforcements,” his father responded.

“What if there isn't need for the last line,” Zekeao proposed, “I've been training my whole life for this, you have to send me father.”

“I am your General,” His father spoke loudly, “you _will_ listen to my commands.”

Zekeao grabbed his sword forcefully and headed to the back line, his father was tough but he needed to listen to him as he still was Zekeao's father. The last line was an odd bunch of fighters, either they were too young to fight or too old to move. Zekeao felt unwanted and betrayed, he was nothing like these people, he was better fighter than anyone in reinforcements.

An old man coughed violently in the back of the line. The reinforcements were like old toys, stashed in the gateway in the wall separating the outside field from the inside fortress. _He thinks I'm useless_ , Zekeao thought. He pushed out of the group grabbing onto the ladder leading to the outside up on the wall.

“Where are you going, Zekeao?” An old man spoke from the crowd.

“I'm getting into the fight to prove to my father that I'm worthy of the good fight,” Zekeao responded sure of himself.

“But you are our leader,” the old man said, “The General appointed you as the commander of this group; You're in charge of the last line of defense, the last hope. I think that makes you the most worth; I think that makes us all worthy.”

“Who are you?” Zekeao asked frustrated, “to tell me how to think. I see you all and know that my father doesn't believe in me, because none of you will make it out alive if we _are_ to be the last hope. He's hoping that he won't need us or pray that we can waste time to slow them down to the civilians inside.”

“He may believe that, but look at the people around me,” the man said, “maybe he cares for these boys like he does for his own son.”

“He doesn't care about the lives of warriors, if you don't die fighting, you'll die to his sword; you better be victorious or never return. He knows you are all wasted lives, so he’d rather have true honorable fighters.” Zekeao grabbed the ladder with his other hand and continued to climb. “If you really think you know everything; I shall appoint you as the leader of this... this suicide group.”

“I do not believe the right man should be truly certain of everything as you are,” the old man spoke once more as Zekeao climbed to the top of the wall.

The sun set but the valley was lit up like it would be in bright daylight. Fire replaced clouds in the sky. It was sorcery for Zekeao. He was not scared by the phenomenon above but worried what would come when the fire fell. Soldiers on bare horses fought the white metal men. Zekeao searched for a way to open the outside gates from atop the wall. Bows lined up on the edge of the roof, quivers lied empty. A squad must have tried shooting at either the fire or the metal men.

Zekeao grabbed a bow and fastened it around his body, letting the string hold against his chest. His dark leather armor rubbed against the bow. Stronger reinforcements ran out of a door in the wall below. They left mount less. _A pointless try,_ Zekeao thought. The reinforcements would have no chance against heavily armored cavalry.

There were chains leading into the wall far from the ladder leading down. The chains were old and rusty, seemed to be never used. _Could this be it?_ Zekeao was unsure. Zekeao held his sword close, it was a short katana, Zekeao found himself stronger using small, quick attacks rather than large heavy ones. Zekeao swung at the chains, watching sparks fly from it and the chain jerk downwards. The gate jumped, creating a large thud underneath. It was surly the right chain.

The chain was hooked up to a large box with a broken, non-functioning hand crank. Zekeao swung once more at the rusted chain. The chain snapped and scattered down into the wall. The gate pulled open and bashed against the upper wall, breaking pieces off the ledge.

Zekeao slid down the ladder, keeping the katana in the sleeve on his hip. Men stood silent at the bottom.

“Are you not going to go fight?” Zekeao questioned.

“We are sticking to the Generals commands,” a boy spoke in the crowd.

“Cowards,” Zekeao whispered.

Zekeao walked out of his post, watching countless men die to blades miles from him. A horse, nearby, was unattended and saddled up. Zekeao stole the horse, riding it towards the battle. The brown horse fought against Zekeao for a second, but became responsive quickly after. The ground was scorched and dry. The horse galloped in a zigzag pattern, avoiding kindling flames. Zekeao spotted his father fighting five armored white men. His father stood in heavy armor with a large sword, cutting down the mob around him easily.

Zekeao charged towards him, thinking that his father needed help. His father had no trouble, his instincts were strong, his attacks were fast, and his mind was truly in the fight as well.

Soldiers around his father did need help, they were weaker than the white men. A full quiver sat on the side of Zekeao's horse, he pulled one from it and loaded his bow. The white men’s horses had open face plates. Zekeao aimed at it, he was the best archer his father had ever seen, to believe that he was not worth being in the fight made Zekeao sick. Zekeao fired his bow. The arrow quickly penetrated a white man’s horses eye while the white man tried stabbing his polearm into one of the foot soldiers.

Zekeao pulled on the strap, guiding his horse around back to catch up to his father. There would be a tough time trying to deal with the metal outright. Zekeao pulled his sword from its sleeve, he held it beside his side. His father stood in a circle of horses. He swung his long katana around him, taking out two horses out of five. Men jumped off their falling mount. Zekeao's father stabbed one, then pulled out into a slash to the other, hitting the man behind him. Three remaining horses closed in to a triangle. Men, mounted, swung their swords at Zekeao's father.

Zekeao drew his bow as he galloped towards the fight. Zekeao shot the arrow through a horse’s eye, the one following behind Zekeao's father. The horse let out a painful cry. His father turned around as a reaction; he spotted his son disrespecting his orders.

“I told you to stay at the wall,” Zekeao's father said while blocking a white man’s attack.

“I am needed here,” Zekeao insisted, “you know this.”

“No.” Zekeao's father swiftly attacked and killed both remaining metal men. “I am sure the people need you. Return back immediately, before it's too late.”

“Too late for what, father?” Zekeao asked feeling confused.

“General,” Zekeao's father corrected, “There is always reason for my choices. Clearly the white men have more than just armored steeds.”

“I don't see anything,” Zekeao said, approaching his father's side on his horse. “It looks like we are about to win this.”

“You miss judge your opponent,” his father stated, “don't ever think who you're fighting doesn't have a trick up their sleeves.” He charged farther into the field, lugging his heavy armor; Zekeao tried to keep up.

“Are you talking about the fire in the sky?” Zekeao yelled at him, fighting with the wind. “We can find the person controlling this.”

“Why do you always assume a man is responsible for everything?” His father yelled back. “This magic cannot be taught to a human. If you really think I don't think you are helpful; go tell help your team to douse the city with water. We are going to need to damp the city.”

Zekeao charged back to the wall, under the heat of the clouds of fire. His men stood in the wall as he had left them, patiently waiting.

“Our time has come,” Zekeao stated, “return into the city and apply water to any flammables, the General suspect there is more fire to come from more than just the sky.”

“What about fighting?” The old man asked, “didn't you want to be the one to fend off the white men?”

“All I needed was my father to put me to good use.” Zekeao leaped off his horse. He faced the door leading to the city. A moat separated the wall from it. The water was nothing to be afraid of, it had come to ankle height for the water but it was dug down twenty feet. Soldiers followed behind Zekeao, looking for a better source of water.

Zekeao raced to the palace. Fish ponds surrounded the entrance bridge and each were separated by wooden poles pressed beside one another. One of the ponds could be drained to lightly flood the streets, used as a defensive tool but now would be useful as a utility. A rope held onto the many wooden poles behind metal bars, below the pond. Zekeao pulled his sword out to reach the rope to cut it. He rubbed the edge of his sword on the thick, stubborn rope. It wouldn't break.

Soldiers ran around the streets, issuing people to gather buckets of water and pouring it on their houses. The fire grew in the sky and the heat grew to a suffering below. Zekeao sweat profusely in his leather armor. Zekeao stabbed his sword into the wood, chipping it slowly. He cut and stabbed furiously against the wood; water showed it was willing to come out.

Zekeao climbed up and sat above the water. He removed leather pieces from his lower body. He jumped into the pond. The water was a nice cool temperature, and Zekeao almost wanted to stay longer, but he couldn't. Zekeao stabbed his sword into a crack in between the wooden posts under the water, and used the sword as a lever to pry the wood apart. Zekeao pulled with all his strength, loosening the wood. He quickly removed one of the wooden posts. The water slightly drained and flowed down the hill beside the stairs. Wooden posts loosened and pushed against the metal grate, cutting flow from the pond. Zekeao dug into them and threw them aside.

Zekeao returned down to the city and ran through the slippery streets. Citizens splashed their houses with the running water. His team re-grouped at the gateway.

“Block the moat,” Zekeao instructed, “we don't want the water gathering here.”

Zekeao turned from his team and walked outside the wall. Zekeao's father and his soldiers have pushed the white men to the horizon. Haze from the heat made it hard for Zekeao to spot his father. Zekeao mounted his horse waiting for him by the entrance. He kicked the horse and galloped to the fight.

The white men retreated over the hill and vanished from sight. Zekeao’s hear a roar and perceived it came from his fellow soldiers in a sign of victory, but he didn’t understand that it came from the sky. The fire twisted in the sky, gathering together over the city. Zekeao approached close to his father’s men. Zekeao asked around for his father, unaware to the flame tornado circling behind him, massive in size. The men stared back, horrified.

“You fool!” Zekeao’s father pushed through a crowd, directing his comment to his son and pointed to the city a far. “Who is to protect them now.

Zekeao jerked his head around. His eyes lit up shamefully, his own ignorance caused his own city, the one he sworn to protect, to be put in danger. Zekeao turned his horse back to the city, with redemption burning in his heart. He kicked the horse harder than before, pressing his shoulders down to pick up speed. The wind blew through his short cut hair. The heat from the fire caused sweat to protrude his skin as he grew closer. People scurried out of the walls, directed by Zekeao’s men.

A fireball flew out of the tornado, with a gravitational pull towards Zekeao’s horse. Flames burrowing beside it with sounds of a falling temple. It crashed beside him, throwing him off the horse. The horse continued to run while Zekeao crashed to the cold, hard ground. He pressed his hands on the ground, receding to understand his situation. His eyes fixated to unfocus, and a pain grew in his head. Blood flowed over his right eye, obscuring his already blurry vision. He lied on his back, blank in thoughts and loss in words. His right ear rung with static volition, and sound audible in his left passed his mind. Soothed by the sporadic rumbling ground.

“Dragon,” A maid screamed, running past Zekeao’s limp body, presuming he was dead.

Zekeao pried his left eye opened, staring at the black sky above. White stars glittered against the glare from the heat. A peaceful view obscured shortly after by the red scales from a serpent dragon, circling the skies, firing fireballs from its bowels at citizens below. The fire tornado transformed to a dome of fire, enclosing the city’s walls in a fire wall.

Zekeao pulled himself to his feet, recovering his conscious. The flying serpent dove down near Zekeao, blowing fire through its teeth. Zekeao’s feet moved on their own, moving him away from the fire. The dragon swirled around; the dragon’s movement flowed as the head lead the movement of its long tail, as if dragging it behind. The tail was longer than twelve horses front to back and half the height of the city wall. The city walls still behind a fire dome. Zekeao's feet moved him towards the captured city. He pushed through fleeing civilians lucky enough to escape.

Zekeao's horse galloping near Zekeao caught his eye. Blood dripped off the left side of the horse where a puncture wound barely visible to Zekeao lied. Zekeao reached out to touch the horse by the mane as it rushed passed while he shuffled his way towards the city, but the dragon circled around and chomped on the horse right behind Zekeao, sending him forwards to the rough ground. He quickly rolled to his back and watched the serpent devour the live horse in a second, everything, including its leather saddle. The flames from its mouth grew bigger, and smaller flames escaped through its flat nostrils.

Zekeao pushed himself up once again, while his heart sank. A group of horses cantered behind him. His father sat atop one of the horses in full armor.

He instructed, “ensure the safety of the people, I've got the dragon.”

Zekeao stood speechless staring at the shield of flames.

“Zekeao?” His father asked, dragging his horse to face him. “If you cannot provide help: join the civilians in retreat.”

Zekeao shook his head, removing himself from the space in his mind. “The fire is being controlled by the dragon, but the dragon has not shown any other signs of fire bending, is it possible that something else is controlling it?”

“Perhaps,” Zekeao's father spoke, glaring back at the city. “But we should focus on dealing with the bigger problem we have.”

“My job was to protect the city,” Zekeao explained, “I thought it was safe enough and I was wrong; it is still my duty to save the lives in that dome of heat.”

Zekeao traced his eyes to the sky, the night sky stood dark, the only thing giving visible light is the shield of flames and the fire burning in the dragon's mouth. Soldier guided refugees away from the battlefield, over dead burning corpses. Zekeao pulled his short sword from the sheath. His father galloped towards the dragon flying low but afar.

Zekeao kept his mind on finding the source of the fire, he tried remember how it came. _It came with the cavalry of white men, as if it was concealing something above the cloud line,_ he thought to himself, _obviously the serpent, but something must have been paying attention to it because the fire opened for it to drop down and the fire was brought down too._ Nothing sat in the air above the clouds. A realization darted Zekeao's head towards the dragon; something must be controlling the fire that is with the dragon right then.

Zekeao charged towards the dragon, sword tightly held in his hand.

 

“What have I done?” Drillbit questioned himself inside the volcano. Lava quickly rose and trapped him inside. His thin skin burned against the heat. His large metal bones showed themselves. His tight face pushed through his skin, jagged steel teeth and open face melted together. Drillbit tried opening his mouth but the steel drowned him. “Please,” Drillbit tried shouting through the liquid metal, “I wish this wasn't my grave.”

“Say no more,” Snake replied watching from the lip of the volcano. Snake floated down to the robot. He grabbed Drillbit by the face and shoved him into the magma. Drillbit shook and fought with Snake, until he fainted into the flames. Drillbit’s body melted into the lava, making him one with the element. Snake created Drillbit into a stew of melted steel.

A ghostly figure extruded from the lava, fighting with the heat, trying to push through the surface but it sealed him tight. Drillbit’s soul fought with the volcanic blood, causing the fire to surface quicker. Lava erupted from the volcano, sending its liquid crawling across the land.

The lava met with the Hero Base Alpha. Drillbit’s body arose from the fire and crawled onto the statue of light. His body was thicker, larger, and powered by a core of infinity turning magma. Fire sprouted from holes in his body when he revved his drill. His claw that grew off his back blew spheres of molten steel from its bowels.

“He-he-he,” Drillbit laughed through his melted face, “how nice you look to _me_ ,” he spoke to his claw. His claw swivel, making it seem as though to responded to Drillbit’s comment.

Drillbit dove into the magma, letting it consume him once more. He swam harmlessly to the shore, emerging powerful. Drillbit stomped into the burning forest of darkness.


	14. Terracotta heart

Garth moved to the upper deck. Lily drove the ship and Zekeao conversed with her.

“Where's Robin?” Garth asked the two, interrupting their conversation. Zekeao gave a childish smile.

“Looking for her already?” Zekeao asked Garth.

“She's not in her room.” Garth stated seriously.

“Maybe-”

“She's not on the boat!” Garth continued.

Garth moved to the back of the boat, ducking under the clothing wire. He peered over the rail.

“What?” Zekeao spoke, moving away from Lily. “She is not going to be over the ledge.”

“She's sly, General,” Garth said, scanning around the water below. “She used her magic on me last night. I had no control over myself; she forced me to sit with her.”

“It seemed like you were doing it voluntarily,” Zekeao said.

“It felt like a dream,” Garth admitted, “dreams always feel like a predetermined ride; I let it go without resisting, but I woke up and noticed her bed was still missing; it was not a dream.”

“So where do you think she is?” Lily asked, entering the conversation behind Zekeao.

“Lily!?” Garth turned to the girl. “Does she have any spells that make her disappear?”

“The only thing close that I can think of is her astral projection,” Lily answered, “but that doesn't make her disappear, only place a projection of herself somewhere else.”

“No that's not it then,” Garth spoke frustrated. Garth pushed off the railing and ran down the stairs.

Fire burned in his heart, he was played like a puppet and he didn't like being anyone's puppet. Garth busted open every door and searched tirelessly around every room. He pushed crewmates away from him, clearing his path wherever he went. Garth met with the bottom of the boat. Stacks of barrels of food surrounded him.

“ROBIN!” He yelled.

Garth threw barrels around, causing concern in the upper floors.

“Garth!” Zekeao instructed, standing behind the doorway. “Stop this immediately!”

“You don't understand, General,” Garth quivered, “I want her dead now!”

“Don't you think you are overreacting?” Zekeao moved through the arch. “There seemed to be no harm to you in the end.”

“She's playing with my mind,” Garth said, grabbing at his eyes. “It's the worst kind of damage.”

“Maybe she wasn't trying to harm you,” Zekeao spoke soft.

Garth removed his hands from his face. He opened his eyes and looked at Zekeao, but a horrific view took his place. Zekeao's skin melted off him, like a monkey suit taken off, Robin stood in the costume.

“Maybe I was trying to connect to you better,” Robin admitted.

“I'm going to _kill_ you!” Garth yelled in his rage.

Garth charged at the sorceress grabbing a barrel and holding it high above his head. Robin flicked her wrist slamming the door shut with magic and sealing it locked with a spell. Garth swung down on Robin crushing her with the barrel. The bottom of the barrel broke and potatoes rolled out onto Robin's body on the floor. Garth jumped on her limp body and choked her furiously.

Blood washed down her face through the gnash in her forehead from the edge of the barrel. Her eyes twinkled with delight.

“You enjoy this?” Robin asked, having no problem speaking while being choke. “Do it then. Kill me!” Robin relaxed her body against Garth's hands.

Garth pressed harder against her neck, feeling the blood trying to move under his thumbs. Robin hacked and coughed trying to breath, but she smiled through it. She seemed to enjoy it; a masochist. She squirmed as a passive reaction, deep down her body wanted to continue on. Her lips turned black and blue and her eyes rolled into her head. _I can't die,_ she mouthed while letting go of the breath she held in. Garth had killed her.

Garth backed up from her body, feeling blood continuing to flow through his fingers making them pulse violently. Robin's blood settled on his fingers. _She deserved this_ , Garth thought to himself. It was the punishment that Garth would bring to her sooner or later. She played with the lion and now she was clawed.

“You didn't have to do that,” Zekeao spoke from the doorway. Lily hid behind Zekeao's body, shivering with fear. Garth had killed her best friend.

Garth didn't respond with words, rather he yelled a war cry and painted his face with Robin's blood. No matter how many times Garth pressed against the idea that he was a Viking, deep down he truly was a trained savage. Garth huffed and growled like a wild dog. Zekeao shook his head, embarrassed and disappointed.

Crew mates gathered around the door, staring at the beast above his dead prey.

“So are we voting for a new captain now?” A pirate suggested.

“Mutiny,” Garth said under his breath.

“This isn't your king’s government,” the pirate responded, “it’s the people's government, and I think we all liked Robin alive and would rather see you dead.”

“I'd like to see you try to kill me,” Garth taunted.

The boards below Garth rumbled. Something below punched against the wood. Garth stood up straight and stared at the board. _Hit me_ , he thought. The board began to chip. Boney fingers pushed through them, feeling around below Garth's center. As soon as the finger grazed his foot, hands busted through the floor and pulled Garth into the water below.

Garth pushed against the bone hands wrapped around his leg. They pulled close to the boat letting him try to grab onto the bottom, but they were stronger than his grip. They let the boat pass and kept him in the water, so close to the surface but not close enough for him to survive. Garth kicked and pushed against the hands, but they were locked tight with their cold, hard grip.

Garth looked up to the surface; he couldn't hold his breath much longer. _Does the world not agree with Robin's punishment?_ He thought. Garth pushed his hand out into the air above the water, giving his last sign to the world.

Right as air forced out of his mouth and his lungs forced him to breath, the hands pulled him above the water. Garth flailed around and took quick, loud, painful breaths, looking like a fish out of water.

Rope replaced the hands, now tied around his legs. He was pulled up from the black boat upside down. Pulled up all the way to the watchtower. Robin leaned against the round rail holding her head in her hands.

“You showed your true colours,” She spoke live, “you may not be scared of these _pirates_ but they sure are scared of you.” Garth didn't speak, but only breathed heavily and gave Robin a threatening glare. “You said my magic can't get to your head,” she continued, “so why don't I get into others? You may want to kill me more than ever but I'm sure _they_ won't let you. There is something here you will never understand: you need me, and I'll toy with you for as long as I want and you can't do anything about it.” Garth swung at Robin, she sat just far enough to be out of his reach. “I heard Lily give away my entire ruse and you still fell for it, ha-ha-ha. ‘Astral projection’ she said, and you ignored it completely. I thought you would understand it when I spoke while having my throat blocked, but I guess my acting afterward sold it.”

“RAAAAA!” Garth yelled. Robin paused unfazed.

“You truly are a savage,” Robin replied soft, “but I see you differently; you're troubled; you don't know what to do with me. You haven't trained for something as difficult as me, and when people deliberately tell you how to deal with me, you refuse their information because you're stubborn. I'm an oddity you'll never win against, but I have a better heart; I'll leave you as captain, let you keep the only joy you have left, but be careful, I can take it away at any time I please. Now get back to work, we have new land to find.”

Robin flicked her finger and the rope tied to Garth's leg slid down to the bottom deck. Garth landed in a pile of netting, conveniently placed below him. Garth untied the rope knotted to his ankles. Pirates circled around Garth, holding metal rods and wooden posts in their hands.

“Get away from me,” Garth spoke.

Garth stood up and pushed against the crowd. _Mutiny_ , he whispered.

 

Garth didn't show up for dinner that night, he rather sat in the bottom floor of the boat cleaning up the scattered potatoes, through his own volition. The floorboards seemed as sturdy as they always been, meaning no damage done to it by Robin's magic. Garth moved an empty barrel over and stuffed potatoes into it, forcefully mashing them in there with no regard to bruising.

“No dinner for you, captain?” Zekeao asked.

“No,” Garth said bluntly.

“I assumed you not actually killing Robin wouldn't stir up so much anger from the crew, but I was surly wrong.” Zekeao kneeled down and helped pick up potatoes lightly.

“Go back to eat,” Garth growled.

“I really thought you liked Robin last night. You showed an undying attention towards her,” Zekeao explained wholeheartedly.

“Never,” Garth grunted, “she tricked my mind. I let her break into my heart _and_ mind. You may think she wants someone to care for her because no one wants to, but I know for sure she wants the people she hates to fall in love with her, so she can send them to ‘Afterlives Judgement’.”

“But what if her ‘curse’ isn't even real?” Zekeao questioned Garth, “you're certain she is lying about everything, except the existence of her curse? I've never heard of something _so_ specific.”

“How does she know so much about the west then?” Garth spun around on his knees. “How does she know as much as us without living there? It doesn't make any sense. We are the missionaries; specifically chosen; only us.”

“So that means she's definitely cursed?”

“Yes,” Garth said confidently, “she seems to be involved with high count of magic, which means there is something wrong with her. There is no doubt about it that she is in fact cursed.”

“I do not believe the right man should be truly certain of everything as you are,” Zekeao quoted.

“Do you believe that her curse exists?” Garth asked, picking up the last potato and gently dropping it onto the barrel.

Zekeao pressed the barred against another.

“How about this: we go to dinner,” Zekeao proposed, dodging the question. “We still trust Lily, right?”

“Lily,” Garth whispered to himself, “yeah, yeah, she's good.”

“Then we will talk to her.”

Garth walked slowly behind Zekeao. Zekeao routinely check on Garth behind him; Garth walked staring down, stomping as he stepped and stumbled on himself a couple of times. Crew mates gave the two deadly stares. Garth stayed in his own world, thinking of the moment he was a cornered lion, bated by a simple meal.

The fat baker moped the lower deck, he pushed his back out positioned himself to block Zekeao and Garth.

“Move aside, baker,” Zekeao instructed.

“The names Yodder,” the baker spoke, glaring back over his shoulder. “Yodder Bolbwick, but I don't think either of you care, thinking you are higher than any of us here and all.”

“We have never stated that,” Zekeao responded.

“Then why can he get away with attempted murder?” Yodder asked, lifting the mop. “If any of us tried that we’d be dead, but we can't even put that savage on trial.” Yodder pointed to Garth staring at his twitching fingers. Zekeao looked back at Garth.

“Garth are you alright?” Zekeao asked caringly. Garth looked up with a slanted look, face drooping to the side.

“N-n-nyo,” Garth responded quiet. Garth swivel on his toes. His head felt high in the sky and he felt light on his feet. A slight sea breeze pushed Garth gracefully to the floor.

Zekeao dove to save him, but the cold, wet floor did it first. Garth bumped his temple against the uneven board. Stars flew around his vision, and static took over.

Garth felt gentle pushes against his tough skin, what felt like torches press hot fire against his forehead. Knives dug into his hips, cutting off the feeling to his legs. He was left in this feeling for some time. Nausea consumed his brain.

“I can do it,” Robin whispered in his left ear.

“Do it,” Zekeao whispered into the other.

Something dug into his chest and shook his entire body, pulling his soul out of it. Garth hunched on a table, with Zekeao on one side and Robin on the other holding her hands near her chest. Garth stared with ghostly eyes at Robin and Zekeao standing over an old, hairy, violently shaking man. Robin pressed her hands out into the air, sending lightning currents to the body. _That's me_? Garth thought staring at the shaking corpse. Robin searched the air, suddenly scared.

“Garth?” Robin spoke out loud, directed into the air. Garth stared back confused. “If you are watching out of your body, please stay here with us.”

Robin pulled back, withdrawing her electricity. A force pulled Garth's soul back into his chest.

“Try something else,” Zekeao whispered into his right ear.

“I've got this,” Robin whispered into the left.

A pain like fire burned his entire back. _What are they doing to me?_ The inside of his body burned like a furnace, no pain just sweating heat. Once again his soul expelled out of his body, back at the table. _Stop this_ , he thought.

“No,” Robin said forcefully, “I stop, you die.”

Robin conjured fire under Garth's corpse. _Why are you doing it like this?_

“Trust me!” She said angrily.

“Who are you talking to?” Zekeao asked confused.

“Garth,” she responded quickly. Zekeao stood confused. Robin twisted her wrist and lifted her hand. The fire rose and wrapped Garth in fire, capsuling his limp body.

 _What are you doing to me?_ Robin turned to Garth frustrated, but didn't look at him directly. She pressed her hands together out in front of her. A void presented itself below Garth's floating soul. Robin pulled her hands apart increasing the size of the void. The fire surrounding his body opened up and circled around the center. A tornado of fire rose from the flames, attaching to the open, empty void. The void pulled at Garth’s soul, the vacuum pulled until Garth showed no more soul. Robin sealed the spiral back into the fire, with a swirl of her hand.

“Hold him down,” Robin instructed Zekeao.

“What?” Zekeao questioned, looking at the flaming cascade.

“It won’t hurt you,” Robin explained, “The fire is just an aura of healing. He's going to awake in a second and become very agitated.”

Zekeao slowly moved his hands over the fire. Gusts of wind flew around it, creating a cooler air than imagined. Zekeao carefully pushed his hands through the wind and fire, unbearable heat scorched his hands, he pulled out for a second but the winds grabbed tightly against his wrists, pulling him back into the flames. The winds pushed away wandering fire, Garth’s chest revealed bare under layers of red. His chest bounced and shook violently under the sheet of fire, distressed and coming alive. Zekeao held hard against him, pushing him back against the table.

“Do you have him?” Robin asked, focusing her hands on the fire.

“Yes,” Zekeao responded.

Robin pulled her hands back to her chest immediately. The fire lashed out and unwrapped quickly. Garth pressed his hands out of the remaining fire, winds surrounded his arms and protected them against the scorching tongues. Garth’s body shook rhythmically, to the rhythm of Garth’s rapidly beating heart, his decelerating heartbeat. His palms flicked out on every beat and his shoulder relaxed in between. Zekeao could feel Garth’s beating heart under his fingers, slowly retreating to a norm. Garth’s arms rolled back onto the table gently. Zekeao slowly retracted his hands as Garth’s body settled, but Robin grabbed his arm.

“No, wait,” She pleaded, “It’s not over.”

Garth flung upwards, sitting himself up. Garth pressed an unstoppable force against Zekeao hands. His eyes popped open, and the pigment in them flowed through the different colours of the rainbow, one at a time.

“Garth?” Zekeao asked him, checking if Garth was conscious.

Garth fell forward and Zekeao caught him in his arms quickly.

“What in the world happened to me?” Garth asked, pressing his hand against his head.

“You had a stroke,” Robin explained, “then you fell into a seizure halfway through the healing process. Lay back down you're not well.”

“I'm fine,” Garth said firmly.

“Clearly you are not,” Zekeao responded back, pushing Garth onto his back gently, Garth did not resist.

“You didn't hold back on giving me your power,” Garth said to Robin, “you did a fine job trying to kill me.”

“You're welcome,” Robin said sarcastically, “you put yourself on so much strain that you almost killed yourself; you're lucky I know how to treat a stroke since my father used to have a few before I left them.”

Garth moved to his side, he lied in the captain's quarters on the wooden desk, cleared off. Nick-knacks and road maps cluttered the floor.

“You cleared off the table for me?” Garth asked.

“Yes,” Robin answered, “you're going to be staying with us for a couple of days until you recover.”

“I can stay in my own bed,” Garth growled.

“Negative chief,” Robin replied, “I need you near me at night so I can keep you healthy.”

“Aren't you disgusted of me? You did what you felt you needed to do; send me back to my bed where I can sleep with the people who despise me.”

“Don't be so hard on yourself,” Zekeao suppressed, “and don't be so aggressive with Robin, I thought this incident would change your idea that you've been holding onto this entire trip.”

Garth flipped himself over, showing his bare back to Robin and Zekeao.

“We'll get you set up here for the night,” Zekeao explained, “sit tight.”

Zekeao backed out of the room and proceeded into the night. Robin grabbed goods off the floor and placed them aside.

“You hungry?” Robin asked concerned, “you haven't eaten all day, you should be starving.”

“No,” Garth shivered.

“I'm going to bring you food, you have to eat something to regain your strength.” Robin moved out of the room leaving Garth alone in the chamber.

Garth analyzed the room, the main bed was set nicely while a makeshift bed lied beside it, presumably Robin's because dried wax clumped at the bottom, wax from the previous night. Lily must have been ready to sleep on the main bed. Garth looked to the other side of the room, he found it was necessary for him to distance himself from the girls as much as possible. He didn't want to be known as a bother in the night. He tried lifting himself up from the table but his arms buckled underneath himself. He collapsed onto the table and coughed a bit.

Zekeao walked back into the room, holding Garth’s mattress folded in his arms.

“I didn't think all three of you would replace me in my own room,” Zekeao commented with a cheerful smile. Zekeao placed the mattress right beside Robin’s.

“No,” Garth spoke loudly, “Put it over here.” Garth pointed to the corner of the room across from Robin’s bed.

“Why not here? Robin can monitor you in your sleep, or be ready if anything happens.”

“She’ll be able to monitor me across the room,” Garth growled.

“I don’t know if you noticed,” Zekeao said insultingly, “but Robin saved your life when no one forced her to, even after you tried to kill her. If that doesn’t scream trustworthy, I don't know what will.”

“I’m a healthy man General,” Garth explained, “My family never had health and heart problems like this, clearly something was put on me to cause this.”

“Like?” Zekeao asked even though he knew Garth’s exact response.

“Robin’s witchcraft,” Garth said for certain.

“You’re a crazy old man with crazy biases,” Zekeao responded.

“Don't believe me? I don't blame you, it seems you are trusting Robin more than you are with me, but you should know that I’m not wrong with these things. Something is not right and Robin is behind it. I’m starting to think she has been behind this whole expedition from the start.”

“You're joking?”

“Think about it,” Garth continued, “she's the only other person who knows the west exist and knows as much as the vision told us, she can control what people see and can influence minds so what are the odds that she used her magic on us that _fateful_ day.”

“Aren't you going too far? How about you try to look at her differently for the time you're going to be in her care?”

Garth threw himself off the table to the floor, scaring Zekeao. Garth pushed himself up to his feet. He looked like he was going through serious pain.

“I don't need her care,” Garth sputtered weak. Garth grabbed the mattress out of Zekeao's arms and threw it to the ground in the corner, then he proceeded to fall hard onto his mattress.

“Be careful,” Zekeao cautioned. Garth grunted as a response.

Robin walked in carrying a bowl of mashed food that resembled nothing edible.

“You should be able to eat this easily,” Robin explained to Garth, “this is made for old men who can't chew because they have no teeth.”

“Porridge?” Zekeao asked examining the bowls content.

“Paste,” Robin corrected.

“I'm not hungry,” Garth shouted, “and you won't see me eating that shit.”

“I could force him if you want,” Robin proposed jokingly to Zekeao.

“With magic?” Zekeao returned.

“Sure,” Robin replied happily, “I was thinking of physical force, but if you want magic that's easy enough.”

Zekeao quickly glanced out the doorway. His playful smile fell.

“Hey, I got to go,” Zekeao insisted, “try not to anger Garth for me.” Zekeao pushed into the pitch black night. “And goodnight to the both of you.”

Garth flipped himself over to his stomach and closed his eyes. Robin placed the bowl by his head. She scanned the corner he lied in. It looked cold and uncomfortable; Robin placed a cover over his body up to his shoulders.

Lily walked in slowly, peering by the doorway, watching Garth carefully. Garth opened his eyes as he heard her enter. Garth caught her eyes and she turned away nervously. She cat crawled onto her bed, pulling the covers down. Garth closed his eyes and absorbed her presence. Robin closed the door and locked it with a golden key. She glanced at Garth one last time, he lied on his stomach with an angry frown, just as she left him. She stared at his sharp bushy brows.

“You're locking me in here?” Garth asked with his eyes closed.

“No,” Robin responded, placing the key on the table. “We are locking everyone out; you can unlock it at any time, but I thought you gave us this room for our protection?”

“Mostly because your empty bed was an eyesore,” Garth explained, “but sure, if it makes you happy, this _is_ for your protection.” This appeased Garth.

Robin laughed with Garth; Lily did not. Robin blew magic wind from her palms, killing most of the candles’ flames, leaving one by her bedside and one by Garth's. she crawled under the covers and pinched the lit candle with her finger and her thumb.

“Your candle, Garth,” Robin called.

Garth swatted the candle, killing the fire. Darkness captured the three and cradled them to sleep.


	15. Her

“They got away,” Makurow explained to Thresh.

“Sorry we couldn't make it but the lava cut off our path; we aren't as fast as you,” Thresh explained his side of the story.

“Luckily the darkness’s minions didn't either,” Snake reassured. “But enough about that; someone is waiting for us.”

“Is she really?” Thresh asked clenching his shotgun.

“It's time to hunt,” Snake cheered.

“She's not an animal,” Makurow sneered.

The three brushed past burned trees and over hard rock. Makurow dragged his sword on the ground, he fidgeted with his gun strapped into his skin, aggravating his nerves. Thresh walked beside him, five inches taller than him. With his gun stowed on his shoulder, held in his hand. Snake hobbled beside Thresh, shorter by a foot from Makurow.

Makurow had lost his anger for Snake since he helped Makurow recover from losing his left foot, but Makurow still didn't trust him. Explained by the fact that he placed himself on the opposite side of Thresh.

They hunted a monster, long and white. Veins clear as day embedded in her bone, and her bones strong as Makurow's titanium skeleton. She had a long head with pointed fangs; a bone stuck out the back of her head, like a pole with spikes, stretching to the bottom of her back. She walked on all four, on the needle point of her bonny spike arms and legs. She called herself ‘Kirama’, told through whispers and hisses spoken through her mind to yours.

Snake met her while Makurow encountered Zip turning against him. Unlike Thresh, Snake, and Makurow, birthed from stone statues of light, Kirama crashed down from a meteor, and crawled out of her shell as a zygote, then absorbed the entire light in the statue behind her. Snake tried to introduce her to the power of darkness and tried to bait her to wish for the power, but instead she attacked Snake, beating him down to the ground. She repeated the word ‘mission’ to Snake as she tried to kill him, Snake finally felt scared. Snake luckily escaped into the forest of darkness and healed himself from wounds inflicted by Kirama.

Snake wanted her dead, so he invited Thresh to tag along; Makurow felt obligated to join. Without the forest of darkness Snake felt threatened and unsafe.

Passed the burnt forest, a path of clear cut trees followed. Trees lied on the ground beside their stumps. The three followed this path. Makurow investigated one of the trees’ stump. The cut was jagged and irritated, clearly not cut with one swipe but with multiple swings. With something bigger than Makurow's sword.

Kirama waited at the end of the path, clearly waiting for the bunch. She stood tall on all fours, taking the same appearance of a spider.

“So this is Makurow and Thresh?” Kirama whispered. She whispered but the three could hear her miles away.

She had a keen eye sight, being able to see the three before they could see her.

“Who said that?” Makurow asked pointing his gun into the air.

“Where is she?” Snake asked squinting his eyes.

“Over there.” Thresh pointed his gun towards Kirama.

The three carefully approached Kirama.

“Mission... Mission... Mission...” she repeated, as if trying to calm herself over the word.

“What are you talking about? ‘Mission’?” Makurow asked, yelling far away from Kirama.

“I can hear you when you talk softly,” Kirama whispered. Whispering breaths and animal hisses crowded Makurow's mind, making outside sounds inaudible.

“What mission?” Makurow spoke quietly, almost under his breath. The sounds placed in his brain by Kirama was almost soothing, putting Makurow to rest.

“We all have missions,” Kirama explained, “coming from the one true king. You failed yours, Makurow. Yours is about to begin, Thresh.”

“I don't want a mission, monster!” Thresh shouted. Thresh stood for a second then flinched to catch his head in his hand. “Aaaah, no more whispers!”

“Thresh are you okay?” Makurow asked, moving closer to his side. “What do you mean ‘no more whispers’?” Makurow once again perfectly imitated Thresh’s voice; Snake giggled.

“The voices aren't whispering anymore; they're yelling, screaming, screeching.” Thresh backed off from Makurow. The whispers inside Makurow's head had vanished.

They had walked close enough to inspect Kirama’s tall, elegant body. She was a head taller than Thresh; massive.

“I have a mission too.” Kirama's voice boomed, vibrating Makurow, Thresh, and Snake’s mind. “To kill anyone who opposes The Storyteller.”

“Storyteller?” Makurow questioned, fighting off the disruption in his head.

“The guy who give you people missions,” Snake explained, in pain.

“I thought they were called The Guardian?”

“Yes,” Snake confirmed, “but guess what the _Architects_ call him.”

“Architects?”

“You know... the mindless drones that follow him, almost like puppets,” Snake explained with the disbelief that Makurow had no idea of the greater power.

“I am a Stalker,” Kirama continued, “designed by The Storyteller to be the strongest, lenient Architect, and I'm here to kill all of you. I'm pleased to see you all came to me.”

“We came to do the same thing to you,” Makurow stated, standing against the pain.

Kirama dashed at the three. The pain of yells shaking heads disappeared. Kirama picked up one of her bone blades and stabbed down on Makurow. Makurow tried blocking with his sword but Kirama was too strong. Kirama pushed through Makurow's block and punctured through Makurow's skin, thumping against the bone. Kirama's front blades were as tall as Snake and sharper than Makurow's powered sword, the back two were half the size and half as sharp.

Kirama pushed Makurow onto the ground, stepping on top of his chest, open and wounded. Kirama tried pushing through his titanium bone but her point wouldn't budge. Thresh readied his gun and launched Kirama off Makurow with a buck shot, his shotgun was strong enough to disrupt Kirama but not harm her. Snake stood silently behind the fight and came out to ambush Kirama, but she dodged Snake’s claw attack. She walked by moving each bone spear one by one, one at a time. Kirama stepped on a rock. Under her weight she broke it.

Makurow sharpened his sword on the clear light.

“It's foolish to think you can break through my impenetrable bone.”

Makurow charged at Kirama, holding his sword by his chest. Kirama swung her spear at Makurow catching him at the end of it. She hooked onto his skin and lifted him off the ground. She stumbled to balance herself on only three pegs. Makurow stared at her pure white chest, a reflection of his own colour. He pulled his arm back and tried stabbing into her chest. The sword drove off the surface of bone and Kirama stood grim.

“What are you trying to find when you get in there?” Kirama asked moving her head close to Makurow’s.

She had dark, blue, spherical eyes located at the top of her skull. Her fangs were not practical at all, being completely blunt. Bright red blood flowed through circuit veins clearly visible in the translucent thin bones.

Thresh jumped forward and tried attacking with his ax. Kirama stood back on her hind leg points, and batted her long spear against Thresh’s abdomen, sending him flying into the clear cut trees. Kirama threw Makurow to the floor and punctured onto him, stabbing him with both front bones. She teared through his chest opening it up. His ribs were solid, closed bone with no intestinal organs present underneath.

“Just like you, and like everyone else,” Kirama drifted, “We are all hollow. You aren’t going to find anything past our bone.”

Snake sliced against her front pegs, nothing but sparks came off them. Kirama stepped off Makurow and sliced with both spears against Snake. He tumbled to the ground in pain. She leaped onto Makurow once again.

“I’m useless in the light,” Snake screamed in pain. “She must have known how to weaken me.”

“I know how to kill all of you,” Kirama whispered, “but I’m here for Makurow now. The Storyteller is very fond of your head.”

“Try me,” Makurow threatened, lying limp on the ground trying to pry Kirama’s blades out of his chest. “You’re not the only one with strong bones.”

Kirama effortlessly swung under her cutting Makurow’s head clean off, leaving shining bone stump on his shoulders and his body to go limp. Makurow’s head rolled off.

“MAKUROW!” Thresh yelled, crawling on the ground. Thresh stood up, tightly holding his gun in his hand.

Thresh unloaded on Kirama, leaving less than a second of time in between each shot. The gun drained Thresh’s dark energy and converted it to bullets. Thresh’s marched by the beat of the gun, approaching with his shoulders back.

“Vengeance,” Snake laughed lying on the ground. “Kill her with vengeance!”

Kirama tried moving away from the shots but Thresh had a superb aim. The bullets imploded on impact and left a ghostly aura emitting off them. Thresh stuffed his barrel against Kirama's jaw. The last bit of Thresh’s dark energy transmitted to the shotgun and sent Kirama off her feet.

Kirama flew into a standing tree. Her massive size shook and cracked the tree. She stumbled off the tree.

Snake scattered to Makurow's head and placed it back on his body, light healed the cut and sewn the neck together. Makurow's eyes lit up pale blue. He jittered himself alive.

“Impossible,” His awaking words were.

“We are sitting on a lot of impossible things, right now,” Snake explained with fear in his eyes. “But the biggest one is taking Kirama down.”

Thresh continued to suppress fire on Kirama, holding her against a tree. Thresh's shotgun sucked Thresh dry and he began to feel faint. He couldn't feel his fingers anymore. His hand cramped, dropping the gun. He stumbled around and darkness engulfed his vision.

Kirama unfazed, stood up strong. She stabbed and threw Thresh to the side. She galloped towards Makurow limping away to cover with Snake under his arm. His chest lied wide open and his ribs sat dimly lit. Snake unassisted Makurow and stood as a barricade, but instead he was an obstacle that Kirama ran over, kicked to the dirt. Makurow turned and faced Kirama viciously. Makurow pulled out his gun and fired an electric wave against Kirama. The current scavenged across her whole body and circulated to her face. It jumped into her eye and stunned her. She ducked her head under her wing for cover and stumbled back.

Makurow pulled Snake aside, and tossed him to his feet.

“Get Thresh out of here,” Makurow instructed, shoving Snake aside. “I'll deal with her.”

“But she's after you anyways,” Snake argued, “I should distract her.”

“You clearly aren't a distraction for her.” Makurow walked towards Kirama; she was ready to pounce again.

She turned her head to Makurow, looking at him with her wounded eye. It turned light blue and electric power flowed through it.

“You...hurt...me?” Kirama said confused, “I wasn't built to be hurt.”

“Don't worry,” Makurow said, “I'm known to do the impossible.”

Makurow took a step forward only to be interrupted by a rocket crashing in front of the confrontation. The rocket exploded on impact and flung Makurow onto his back. His ears rung and nausea arose in his head. Line of missiles flew from the horizon aiming at the fight. Hero Base Beta soared behind them with a concerning blue aura around the structure.

“A barrage?!” Snake laughed, “Fighting with _big boy_ guns are you _dwarf_?” He asked a non-present person.

Makurow tried standing, but the feeling in his head kept him down, he was substantially dizzy.

“Makurow!” Snake called, holding Thresh unconscious on his shoulders. “We are leaving!” Snake yelled into Makurow’s face. Makurow could barely make out Snake’s comment.

Snake shoved Makurow to his feet, assisting him the same way Makurow had before. Another rocket crashed behind them, shaking the ground and throwing them off balance. Fire crawled over their shoulders, hugging them with heat.

Kirama dug through the fire and dashed ahead, chasing her prey. Fire grew in her soul as well, angered by Makurow's ability to stay alive. Makurow hunched low and kept his sword against the dirt, he was weak but capable. He grazed his hand under his gun and sent power to the palm. Metal shrapnel lied dug into the ground beside him, Makurow caught sight of the piece in the corner of his eyes. Lightning tendrils latched onto the metal and pulled it to his hand, by the second it reached his hand, he threw forward his arm flinging the rocket piece at Kirama. Electricity circulated in the piece and unleashed near Kirama's face. Blue fire engulfed the piece and reduced it to a fine grey residue. Kirama stepped away from the projectile.

Wind pushed trees low, blowing out the fire in the valley; the sound of engines polluted the air. Kirama stumbled for balance on her four legs. The air station slowed to a halt above the clear cut path. The ship blocked out the sun leaving its shade shrouding the path. The only source of light shimmered from the balance engines trailing white fire. The blue barrier was nearly invisible up close, but trees bent down against its pressure like solid transparent material.

Snake shook in the dark, power flowed through him once again. Kirama changed her focus, Snake would become a problem in his home territory. Kirama leaped at a tall tree pushed against the barrier. She climbed it effortlessly, stabbing into the wood like a sewing machine. Branches sizzled against the barrier, almost as if made from plasma.

Snake dashed, side to side, pushing over Makurow and anything else in his path while throwing Thresh off his shoulders to the ground. Makurow quickly stood up and grabbed Thresh off the ground. An uneasy feeling turned Makurow away from their position and he fled through the burned forest away from the fight.

Snake chased Kirama, unrivaled and unstoppable. Snake took one clean slice with his claw and cut through the tree Kirama hung on. The power from the force field threw the tree down to the ground at a deadly speed, Kirama was faster and switched to a closer tree before the one she stood on fell. Kirama held onto a tree with only two spikes, her left side hung by her side. She slashed at the invisible field grazing off its surface. The sphere wouldn't give in.

A rope parlayed over a side of the ship, Nexus and Sergeant slid down heroically. A special mechanism in their wrist designed by Zip let the Hero's have full control over the direction and speed on a Hero certified rope. Nexus fired at Kirama hooking away at their shield, the grazing light show only served as a distraction against Kirama's tough bone body. Joints made of the same bone itself seemed unimaginable and impossible to exist as a functioning sleeve of skin, but Kirama's purpose was to be the impossible.

Snake tried climbing Kirama's tree but his claws were too large to clench properly, and they were too large and dull to hold on while punctured through the wood. Snake slid into a frustrated rage, tearing himself apart with his claws. He ripped his head off his neck and pulled his spine with it as a tail. His body hunched over like Makurow's lifeless robots. Arms grew off the spine and dark green, spiky skin covered it. Smaller hands grew off the arms attached to the tail. Snake soared through the sky defying the pull gravity, laughing hysterically, approaching Kirama's backside while she stayed distracted by zooming bullets disappearing off her chest.

Sergeant tracked Snake's trajectory, aiming to fire. A mathematical equation processed through his mind, determining the right place to aim, considering the distance apart, Snake's speed and fluidity, the amount of time needed to charge his gun, the drop off arc, and the speed the projectile will travel. This process only took a second but Sergeant required to go through the necessary steps every time he decided to take action. This was one of the reasons Makurow decided to give Sergeant the slowest, strongest gun, while Zip found it as an inconvenience. Zip may had try to tamper with his programming to reduce the amount of times Sergeant required to process equations but he hadn't caused any changes.

In a second, Sergeant processed the exact answer to his equation, even while charging up his arm cannon. Sergeant aimed away from a direct overlay through the sight onto Snake's floating body. Sergeant hit a direct impact against Snake's nape, deteriorating his skin to his decapitated skull. His spine broke off and his skull with damagingly glowing red eyes, fell to the ground meters below. His teeth chattered violently on the way down, as if Snake presented full control of _his_ bare bone.

The Heroes fired inside the sphere, meaning to Kirama that the field was a one-way passage. She would have to force it to become two ways. Cinders grew off the tops of surrounding trees, fire proceeded, light filled the valley in the shroud of the ships shadow. Nexus pulled back and signaled a retreat. They rotated their wrists and threaded the rope to their side. The mechanism pulled the two effortlessly back up to the ship. Kirama slid down the tree with her weight against only one blade dug into the wood. She etched a cut through the entire middle section of the tree. She gracefully landed against the soft ground, pressing a point on a laying tree body.

Snake's skull jittered in a circle of tree stumps. He tried speaking, but a lack of a throat cut the vibration. Kirama could make up the amount of swears exceeding from his chattering teeth. Snake flipped his skull to face Kirama, his haunting red eyes dug into her soul as she stared back. Kirama created a connection to his thinking mind when she proceeded to speak. Ghostly whispers and haunted screams made Snake's bones shudder, returning the intensive glowing eyes to settle.

“You're not that scary as I saw in Makurow's eyes,” Kirama whispered.

Makurow jumped through a bush, trying to ambush Kirama, but she dodged backwards. Makurow had no hesitation and repeated sliced his sword in Kirama's direction. Kirama tried blocking an attack, Makurow noticed and uses the advance to his advantage. Kirama stood back on her back legs and kept one of her front legs down for balance, the other stabbed out to catch Makurow's sword. Makurow turned the sword to the side and bashed Kirama's bone spear. The force was strong enough to push it aside, causing Kirama to lose some of her balance. Makurow shook his free hand at Kirama and sent a volley of power into Kirama's solar plexus. She collapsed to the ground, clattering her bones together.

Makurow tried jumping on Kirama with his sword aimed at her face but she rolled on the ground and batted him with her long leg.

“You're foolish to come back to fight me,” Kirama spoke through her spider tongue, “all you are doing is making it easier for me.”

“You'll go down by my hand,” Makurow said, stumbling to stand.

“Why are you here to fight me?” Kirama questioned, “you had the chance to escape long ago, I had no quarrel with you up until now, so tell me, _Maker_ , what makes you drive now? Is it because someone asked you nicely to? You had nothing else to do? Or is it because I have proven to be stronger than you, just like everyone else that bothers you? You want your creations dead because they overpowered you; I stand here strong and you're barely able to recover yourself. The Architect saw great promise in you, that's why he gave you many missions, and that's why _I_ loathe you. The Storyteller doesn't care which head I bring to him, I just wanted yours off first.”

Kirama's words punctured Makurow's head, pushing him to the point of anger Kirama desired. Makurow pushed of his feet, charging at Kirama once again. Kirama stood ready to finish Makurow off. She swept low, tripping Makurow before he could get close, then she stabbed down with the other leg, puncturing through his back out to the front of his stomach. Makurow looked to his abdomen in horror.

“I know how to defeat every one of you,” Kirama explained, “The Storyteller taught me how.”

Fury circulated in Makurow's bones, lighting them up to a bright blue. He forcefully grabbed Kirama's spear through his stomach, he pressed each fingertip against a visible vein. Electricity blew from his fingers and exploded in his hands; white light orbed the two and expanded out to the tree line.

“I am not to be defeated!” Makurow yelled, trying to break Kirama's leg.

“Light clearly won't harm me,” Kirama laughed silently, “don't you know what weaknesses are?”

“Everything in this world can, and will consume you.” Makurow shifted his voice to copy Wander’s slow, concentrated voice. “You are not protected from me,” Makurow said shifting his voice back to his own.

Makurow twisted his lower hand away from him and pushed his upper hand on Kirama's bone. The bone slightly cracked under pressure. Frightened Kirama, retracted her spear, pulling out from his body, shedding his skin against her rough edges. She analyzed her leg, a tiny crack formed off the middle of her bone, over a bleeding vein. Both her eyes changed tint to a terrified light blue.

“Scared now?” Makurow asked tauntingly, crawling on the ground with Kirama's blood dripping off his fingers. He placed it close to his face, a familiar metallic smell. “Why are only a few of you filled with liquid?” Makurow asked serious but Kirama took offence to it. “I've seen it in visions, connected with hopeless creatures.” Makurow peered up to Kirama's angry, with white eyes. “Are you one of them?”

A personal anger pushed Kirama; Makurow pulled a nerve deep in Kirama's heart. She sliced down on Makurow, but he stepped up on one leg, parrying the attack and swung at her stomach. The sword stuttered to push through the bone, and the bone crumpled to its sharp edge. Kirama screeched in pain, with such a high pitch it reverb Makurow's mind. They sat there for a second, Makurow kneeling with his sword deep in Kirama's core and her staring at it, appalled.

Sergeant dropped from the ship, landing with his boots absorbing the fall. He aimed his gun at Kirama's wounded stomach. Makurow did not turn to see Sergeant, but the sounds from his gun charging up, was a fine hint to his existence. Makurow pulled his sword from inside Kirama, then placed himself in between her and Sergeant as he fired. Makurow jabbed fast, piercing the ball of plasma as it reached him. The plasma exploded off the sword, spreading onto Makurow's body. Green acid burned his skin to the bone in patches.

Makurow pulled up his gun and Sergeant lifted his sword in response. Makurow bluffed.

Light healed his wounds instantly and brought power to his soul. Makurow's vision widened and bright light transported him to Sergeant’s location; his feet didn't move but his body did. Makurow bright his sword down to Sergeant but was met with Nexus’ shield. He waited on a rope, standing guard, ready to step in to save Sergeant. Makurow thought Zip had split up the heroes, but he had hidden one to let Makurow's guard drop, knowing very well he would think Zip was ignorant.

Sergeant stepped back and the two faced Makurow in a triangle formation. Kirama stumbled away slowly, staring off with glaring white eyes, speechless.

Sergeant aimed his gun at Kirama. Makurow swung down beside him trying to cut through the nozzle but Sergeant pulled back before he could. Kirama limped away into the forest out of view. Makurow didn't look back but he knew she looked at him once more, and he could feel her presence disappear.

Makurow stepped back from the Heroes. His stomach healed slowly, sealing up the hole going through his body. Sergeant took steps back as well, then kneeled down on his left knee. He aimed his gun at Makurow. Makurow had accidentally placed himself at a dangerous distance, perfect for Sergeant to keep him locked down.

“Stand down,” Sergeant spoke, “you've got nowhere to run.”

“You sacrificed yourself for an Architect?” Nexus pondered, staring at the side of Makurow's face. Makurow turned his head away from Nexus, he wouldn't take his own creations judging him. “You barely knew her, why did you express pity? That isn't in your nature, and through all of that?”

Makurow couldn't explain it but something inside him told him he made a big mistake when he saw the fear in Kirama's eyes. A feeling that resonated in a place of familiarity, because deep down he knew her from somewhere. Just like the unbreakable trust and friendship Makurow had with Thresh, Makurow could not explain why, it was a ‘just because’ feeling that lived with him from the very start. Maybe resonating with Wander’s idea of a life before this.

“Cuff him Sergeant,” Nexus instructed, “Zip will deal with him.”

Makurow stared out of focus, trying to think, but nothing came. Sergeant grabbed the handcuffs from his hips and opened them up. Makurow downed his head, looking at the ground below. Snake's bare skull lied peacefully by his foot. Even in death he contained a scary grin, but the red aura lying deep in Snake's eye sockets confused Makurow. _Are you not dead?_ Makurow thought. His thought projected itself outside his mind; Snake and Sergeant heard, but Nexus did not.

“What did you say?” Sergeant questioned Makurow, “I didn't get that.”

“Get what?” Nexus asked.

“Makurow said something,” Sergeant said breaking his focus from arresting Makurow.

“I didn't hear anything,” Nexus said irritated, “just cuff him.”

Makurow stared into Snake's dark eyes. _What's the magic word?_ Snake responded. Sergeant grabbed Makurow by the wrist.

“I wish to leave,” Makurow whispered.

Sergeant spoke again, “you're going to have to speak up-”

Magic whisked from Snake's skull and encapsulated Makurow in a tornado of darkness. Makurow's wrist stood out held by Sergeant. Sergeant tried pulling Makurow out of it but the magic was stronger. Snake's skull busted out into maniacal laughter. Snake's body materialized in seconds over his skull, reviving himself fully. Snake slid by, faster than the speed of light, and chopped off Sergeant’s arm, releasing it from Makurow. Snake locked onto Makurow's arm and dove into the swirling void.

Sergeant tried entering the void with one less arm but Nexus grabbed him and held him back, saying, “we don't know where that will lead us.”

The void shrunk until it consumed itself, disappearing in the air. Sergeant slipped through Nexus’ hold and stepped to the spot where the void stood a second ago. Sergeant stepped on a soft bump on the ground, making a squish sound below the ball of his foot. He peered down to his sole. Defecate stuck to the bottom of his foot.

“What is this?” Sergeant questioned, observing the never seen before substance. Insects crawled out of the manure, creepy beetles, crawling worms, and flying flies. “What are these? Monsters of darkness, small enough to sneak under our radar?” Sergeant stepped down, killing a bunch of bugs. “Heh, at least they're easy to exterminate.”

“Keep some alive then,” Nexus instructed, “Zip can study them to better defend ourselves.” Nexus pinched a beetle off the ground. “Let us go.”


	16. Serenity

“Peculiar,” Zip commented, “I've never seen life much smaller than _us_.” He turned to Wander sitting on the ground.

“Monsters that look alike,” Wanderer pondered, “surely they're the darkness’s creation, pitiful that they made them so small otherwise they would do some major damage.”

“There is something stirring,” Zip said, “I'll have to investigate further with more samples.”

“But how will you acquire,” Wander said concerned, “Nexus and Sergeant are busy hunting the evil in the world, and us going out on our own is suicide; we could walk into a trap.”

“Then I'll have to resort to another idea,” Zip concluded, “Makurow never finished providing a purpose for the remaining three robots.” Zip led Wander to the occupied capsules.

“Evolve, Storm, and Pyro?” Wander asked.

“Yes.”

“What about them?”

“Since they do not contain weapons yet, we will assign them on bug duty.” Zip explained, opening Evolves capsule. The problem was that Makurow left them bare; he was too focused on Sergeant, Nexus, and especially Soldier, that he didn't give the rest of the robots any upgrades aside from just a painted body. There were ideas in mind for what they were in contribution to the ‘Hero’ team but Zip never got to learn what they were. “The B Team.” Zip called them.

Sibious sent the B Team down to the earth to collect emerging insects of a wide variety. Life began to crawl from underneath the surface of the planet, for the totality of light only remained in the surface and the bugs risked corruption living underneath.

Drillbit, amongst this time, decided to dig into the ground for ‘fun’ while walking aimlessly. He disturbed a mound of insects. He saw countless creatures dead by his destructive appendages. “Precious life,” he spoke, feeling the guilt build up in his heart. “I’m sorry.”

Distance sounds of machinery clanking drew Drillbit closer. The B Team, through jittery robotic movements, dug into the ground with their metal hands and picked up handfuls of insects. Drillbit felt enraged; how could _they_ harm the innocent without a thought in their minds? Sibious is just like the robots he controls, emotionless.

He attacked the dispassionate robots. They did not fight back or observe his presence. Zip observed cautiously above. _I'm no way should Drillbit act hostile towards his own creator,_ Zip thought. He didn't care at all about Drillbit appearing out of the blue, to terrorize other bots. He just wanted Drillbit back intact so he could replace his personality subroutine.

Zip sent Sergeant alone to confront him. Nexus was gone on a mission to locate Kirama. She was wounded, a prime time to take her down.

“Drillbit!” Sergeant shouted, “it's been too long, where have you been?” Sergeant tried to strike a friendly conversation to sooth the raging fire engine. Sergeant caught a glance at Drillbit's melted chest. A fake core sat melted in between the gridded metal. Makurow never gave him a proper core, but he did plan to give him Strontium’s core. Sibious figured out Strontium had a better place as a cold blooded supercomputer, something Makurow would say as a mirror of himself.

“Do not disturb the small life,” Drillbit insisted, spouting fire from his melted caged face. “Do not keep them for your own personal needs.”

“You see, they're a lot of them around here,” Sergeant explained, “we are only taking a few of them.”

“I see a lot of you,” Drillbit said annoyed, “six seems more than enough, I'll only be taking a few.”

“You've already taken one from us.” Sergeant’s voice deepened, he no longer tried to talk friendly to Drillbit. “We know you stirred up the volcano and ravaged the lands, Soldier died because of you. He fell into the magma.”

“No!” Drillbit said, feeling guilt build up in his heart once again. He was a slave to guilt. “I never meant to hurt anyone back then. I was lost, just trying to find my way,” he tried to explain.

“You better leave,” Sergeant continued, not interested in Drillbit's reasoning. “Or I'll have you handed back over to Zip to have you _fixed_.”

Drillbit thought to himself for a second. What was his purpose? Makurow lived to serve a purpose, and here, Drillbit stood trying to accept his. He saw helpless creatures being harmed by evil metal. Even though he was the same as the evil robots, he felt to be responsible for the insects’ safety.

“How about _you_ leave, and return the precious creatures back safely?” Drillbit said determined.

Sergeant quickly aimed his arm cannon at Drillbit, positioning his body to half-face him. “Alright,” Sergeant sneered, “enough from you. Stand down and deliver yourself to your rightful commander. I gave you enough time for you to make your decision but you seem so prominent on being a pain. You have nowhere to go now. I have the distance on you and my aim is set on you.”

Drillbit chuckled through the melted cage. His claw creeped over his shoulder and aimed at Sergeant. The Hero stood confused for a second, then Drillbit's claw arm spouted a fireball from its bowels. Sergeant dove to the ground, escaping the fireballs explosion. Fire scorched Sergeant's back.

Drillbit stepped forward. He chuckled, towering over Sergeant.

“There are many new things you don't know about me,” Drillbit laughed, “but you're just the same as when I left you; frail.”

Sergeant tried being cheeky; slowly he pushed himself onto all fours, pressing his gun down to the ground. Then waited long enough for Drillbit to think he was weak. Drillbit hunched over to look closer at Sergeant. Sergeant could feel Drillbit's heat hang above him. Drillbit revved his drill, spouting fire out the back of his arm.

Sergeant swiped his sword at Drillbit's ankles. Drillbit pulled his left leg back but kept the right still. The lightning blade sliced into Drillbit's metal, stopping a quarter in. Even though Sergeant got a cut in, he didn't expect Drillbit's metal to be that strong. He had calculated Drillbit's metal based off Sergeant's own, but it was far stronger.

Drillbit laughed as he drove his drill arm into Sergeant's back, destroying the entirety of his spine. A large wire connected from Sergeant’s back to his left arm sent high volts of electricity to his sword, but Drillbit cut the connection off with his blade. Sergeant's lightning blade shrunk back into the electric coil sitting atop the hilt.

Drillbit pulled his drill out, letting it spin in the open air, while staring down at the hole placed into Sergeant's back. He took his blade and pierced it through the hole, pushing right to the dirt. Sergeant jittered in pain, feeling the metal press against his. He tried to speak out but the agony prevented him. Drillbit dragged him against the ground, letting Sergeants arms buckle under his chest.

“Where's your back up?” Drillbit teased, “I want to see Nexus torn apart also.”

“I don't need back up,” Sergeant said, trying to escape the blade.

Drillbit threw Sergeant against a tree. Pressing his burning claw arm against Sergeant’s face. Sergeant screamed in pain, seared by Drillbit's brand. The claw pinched its tip, mimicking a chuckle. Sergeant moved against the pain and pressed his gun on Drillbit's leg and fired while Drillbit was distracted. The shot pierced through breaking Drillbit's leg in half.

Drillbit fell over but his claw stuck to Sergeant's neck, keeping him against the tree, but the fire burned out. Drillbit's thick leg flopped to the ground. Sergeant smacked the claw with the hilt of his depleted sword. It released, pinching back as it fell down. Drillbit lied uneasy on his tools, in able to hold himself up. Sergeant pulled his cuffs from his hip and attached it to Drillbit's blade arm. Drillbit tried swinging back but the cuffs restricted wrist movement.

Sergeant hooked the handcuffs chain around Drillbit's claw and cuffed his drill arm. The cuffs mechanical system tightened the chain and pulled Drillbit's arms together to his chest. Drillbit kicked the dirt.

(Snake appears and grants the transition001)

 

Dim light shone through silk curtains on the room’s windows. Garth, in the captain's quarters below the back upper deck, slept through the whistles of the sea’s breeze passing through the wooden walls cracks. Lily fitted both her and Robin’s bed with soft sheets. Garth’s breath sounded obstructed, a tightness in the throat. Garth's breathing sounded labored and uneasy.

Zekeao entered the room with his cloak on, with loose clothes underneath. Wooden cup in his hand, chipped on the lip and base. Sweet tea, the way his father used to make it. The herbs of the tea were able to heal a warrior’s sickness, and to put them back into the world. He placed it gently on the table.

Lily heard the soft sound of wood on wood, she gave Zekeao a warm smile.  “You want one?” Zekeao asked Lily. “I made this one special to help Garth, but I can tone one down for you. It's my father’s favorite cup, he said ‘it tastes like heaven’.”

Lily giggled. “I would be delighted.” She brushed by the edge of the bed and walked towards Zekeao, he opened the door and led her out.

Garth grunted. His body was feeling much better but his mood wasn't. Garth pushed himself up, he was barely awake. He peered through the curtain. Crew mates worked the boat on the settled sea, not a wave in sight and the sails hung low without catching a breeze. Robin sat atop the watchtower relaxing in the sunlight. Garth could barely see her hair from down below.

“What is she doing up there?” Garth asked a pirate.

“Doing her job, Captain.”

Garth climbed the rope ladder, reaching the top of the tower. The silent sea rocked the boat softly. He placed his hands on the ledge of the bowl and pulled himself up to a staggering sight. Robin lied undressed, asleep slouched on the side. Garth gently shook her shoulder, not eyeing her.

“What are you doing?” Anal Garth asked.

“What's there to do chief?” Robin said drowsily, “the boats going nowhere.”

“Wasn't someone else supposed to be up here?”

“Yes, but I took this boring job off his hands so he could do something more interesting.”

“Don't say it like that.” Garth removed the cloth over his pants.

“Are you going to join me?” Robin asked seductively. Garth aggressively flung the cloth at Robin.

“Put something on, you're not a whore.” Garth lowered himself down the ladder.

“Where are you going?” Robin asked, hugging the cloth around her body. “Stay here. We can chat.”

“No,” Garth said forcefully, “I got a boat to take care of.”

“There's nothing to do! come on, stay up here. You sound like you're feeling better and last night wasn't pretty for the both of us. Come here you big grump.”

Garth stared down to the lower deck, some pirates sat around looking off into the blue sky. Garth let out a sigh and climbed back up. Robin sat legs crossed with a happy smile, covering herself up with the cloth.

“How did you get up here like that without anyone noticing you naked?” Garth said, finding a place in the bowl.

“You keep on forgetting what I can do,” Robin said with an impish grin. She slowly grabbed the cloth by the top. “Look over there!” She quickly pointed off behind Garth, then ripped off the cloth, throwing it onto Garth's face. Garth pulled the cloth down; Robin was gone from her position. Garth checked over the ledge on her side, to his surprise, she was not hanging over it. “Not there,” she whispered behind his back.

Robin pulled Garth gently to the floor. She had gotten into his head again and calmed him before he could freak out. She placed him against the side and sat beside him. She eased off his mind and let go of him.

“If you want to leave,” She said quietly, “I won't control you this time.”

Garth stared at the center of the bowl. He could stay, or he could go down and watch the boat rock on the soft sea, but Robin felt warm today. The same as she always felt, the aura coming off her absorbed into Garth skin, calming and welcoming. Looking into her eyes, they glistened and glowed with hearts connection. He shot his head away from her.

“I cannot talk to you like that.” Garth distracted himself with the sky.

“Then don't look at me,” Robin said, moving closer to Garth's side, “just talk.”

“How are you doing?” Garth forced himself to speak.

“Getting better as the times go,” she answered. “How about yourself?”

“Feeling better,” Garth admitted. “I've been wondering about you a lot.”

“I'm pleased.” Robin was quick to respond.

“I used to believe every word, every action, every intention coming from you was false,” Garth admitted, “But then every now and then you do or say something and I believe you. I thought it would be appalling to think about, but then I don't. I seriously do not understand if I think you're lying anymore. That's what has been bothering me.”

Robin stared at Garth with utmost delight. She had Garth's trust dangling under her hand but she wasn't going to rip it from him, she wanted him to give it to her gently.

“Tell me, Robin,” He pleaded, “is it true what you say about the west?”

“Yes,” She said enthusiastically, nothing held back her feelings.

“Then what you say about your curse is true?”

“Every detail about it!” She said, tears welling in her eyes.

“Then tell me more about it,” He said with passion, “tell me of a time you affected someone with the curse that you didn't mean to.”

“There was this one time,” Robin said as she looked to the floor in despair. "That one time when I was frozen for years, there was this woman I lived through an apocalypse with in a metal town I built. She was nice and caring but she tricked me, she told me someone loved me, I couldn't figure out who until one day it clicked when I looked into the eyes of the man that helped me achieve my dreams. I believed he loved me and I tried my hardest to make him hate me. It was hard to make him stop loving me when he never liked me from the start. Turns out after all that during the last moments of my life, that woman whom I trusted with my life admitted that she loved me.”

"Did you ever tell them then you were cursed?” Garth asked, letting his mind flow with curiosity.

"No, I could never bring enough courage to tell them, any of them."

"What were their names?"

"I don't know." Robin said.

"Why not?"

"Some timeline in between then and now, when driven out of amnesia, I decided to forget names of everyone I correlated with, along with the reason why.” Robin explained, “I know the details not the faces."

"So you have control over your memory?"

"When the time comes yes, and it seems I'm very petty." She sucked her teeth in frustration. "I still can't believe that woman was the one to love me."

"So more than one person could perish to your curse?"

"It seems like it."

“Then why not use your curse as a power against people?”

"No,” She said forcefully, “I've never gotten that low to destroy anyone's life at will, but I'm getting close.” Robin became annoyed by Garth's lack of respect. “I'm trying to escape this curse, Garth, and no one is making it easy."

“Have you tried killing yourself?” Garth said with no remorse.

“Yes,” She said with a certain fright, “but committing suicide one thousand times leads to the sight of a gun messes with my sanity. I have to live a couple of years before I can watch my feet dangle, but that's only after I make sure my god-parents hate me, can't afford to take them with me. Then after a while I find contentment in living in a life and I can never bring myself to do it.”

“Why are you so open to me right now?” Garth asked, “through everything I'm learning from you, it seems you don't trust people enough to have them know about your curse. Then why me?”

“Because I can see how much you dislike me,” Robin explained, “in the end, if it is true to come for me, I will not be seeing you perish with the rest of the innocent souls I've ruined.”

“Then why have you been purposely getting on my nerve every second you can?”

“I'm playing to your dislikes,” She explained, “I would love to keep you closer to me, but I've seen your type before and you're hard to keep on your bad side when you become kind to me. This is all for your own good, I don't want to control you but you keep on running away from me.” Garth thought to himself, a wall broke in his mind that was blocking a certain thought. “You've have been controlling me!” Garth turned to Robin in rage, he no longer minded Robin’s current state as he wasn't thinking kindly anymore. “You've been controlling me this entire time, haven't you?”

She responded quickly “No-”

“You let go of me for a second and I could finally think straight.” Garth pushed Robin to the ground, off his arm. “I would never talk so personally to your kind.” The cloth slid off of Robin's chest, Garth ripped it from her hands and tied it back onto his waist.

"I have not controlled you to talk to me,” she tried to explain, but Garth was too frustrated to listen. “I have only opened your heart to me naturally. You've done this all on your own."

“Stay up here like this,” He said with a spit, “I wouldn't care if a pirate found you like this.”

“What's with all this yelling?” Zekeao said as he reached the top of the watchtower. Robin dove and hid her body behind Garth's.

Garth threatened to slap Robin with the back of his hand, she had loyalties fear written on her face. Garth saw the shame in her eyes as she held tight to Garth's clothing. "Oh," Garth said, finally understanding why she was up here the way she was. Naked. It wasn't because she liked being bare in a secluded place, it was so that she could get Garth's undivided attention that she wanted so badly.

Garth shuffled over, shielding Robin with his body from Zekeao's sight. He was confused for a bit but quickly understood the situation and backed down the ladder, telling Garth before he left, “I left some healing tea for you in the Captain’s quarters.”

“Naturally,” Garth whispered, “you have a very funny definition of ‘naturally’; playing with someone else's sexual interests by dropping your dignity.”

“I didn't mean that,” She responded with a pout. “I meant that you felt that you need to treat me well all on your own.”

“I'm heading back down,” he said, pulling the cloth off his waist once again, placing it into the palm of her hand. Garth dropped down the ladder.

Robin hugged the cloth in her hand, pressing it against her mouth and nose, curling up against the wooden edge of the bowl. She expected to feel happy with the smile behind the grey cloth, but instead she felt regret. She was dancing on a thin line between love and hatred and she could not figure out which one was more important to her.

 

“Impossible! One moment I was alive, then dead, then back again. I do not understand. Is death just an illusion in this lonely world? Was it the work of your magic?” Makurow asked, frantic and frightened.

“No, I didn't do anything besides putting your head back on your neck,” Snake floating image explained. He had returned back into a wish granting genie, with no body or form except a floating head with a slithering spine.

“Then how am I still walking after Kirama proved me wrong and killed me?” Makurow wondered.

“Just as she said; you… we have nothing except for skin and bones in our body,” Snake said, “We are not what you have seen in your visions, ‘the ones who bleed’ as you called them, are week and thimble. They carry vital organs in their body that they cannot live without, but you see we are a body and soul, connected from the source.”

“What is the source?”

“The eyes. Where you receive it all is right there.” Snake gestured at Makurow's blue eyes with his massive claw. “Your soul controlling your body is far away, but it feels so close to you.”

“But what about Zip? He _bleeds_ , does that mean he is the only one susceptible to death.” Makurow stared out of the tree line to the horizon afar.

“Just like your robots, Makurow, death is a mere image. You are not dead, only shut off… or shut down. No one is this world will truly _die_.”

“Then how can we defeat someone like Kirama?”

“What happens when there isn't something to control anymore?” Snake asked, “You will have nothing to worry about. You've seen what happens when you hurt Kirama's eyes, that is where her soul lies, hitting her bones will only tire yourself out, but cut off the neck and what does the soul control? An empty skull. Or you can destroy every inch of their body and leave them with only their soul. Then what is there to be afraid of?”

“But I've seen Kirama afraid of bleeding, or even tormented by it,” Makurow tried to explain.

Thresh lied in a pile of leaves piled up, sat under a ledge of rock and dirt. Darkness shrouded him, restoring his energy.

“I cannot speak for someone else's thoughts,” Snake said, “she probably has an emotional feeling towards her blood and bone but I don't recommend bashing on it. Either way I don't feel like we should hunt for her anymore.”

“Why not?!” Makurow said pretentiously. “We know she is dangerous to keep around _and_ she's hunting us down. I don't want to become the prey.”

“Let her find us,” Snake sneered, “I didn't say we shouldn't fight her, but looking for her will only cause us trouble. You shouldn't dwell on her. Knowing your robots; Kirama showed a stronger presence than you, so they will likely shift their focus to getting rid of her first.”

Makurow moved out of the tree line, bathing in the hot sunlight. The darkness held to his shoulders shriveled up against the rays.

 _Makurow,_ a whisper clattered in his head, _the water_. Makurow's head darted to the path connecting to the sea. Makurow summoned his sword to his hands. He looked back to the dark two, Snake watched over as Thresh rested.

Makurow moved to the path. The light charged his body and he dashed across the path.

Waves crashed against the sandy shores. Bushes shrouded the beast like a beautiful oasis. Bettors dug under tree bark washed up by the shore. The glorious sea lied vacant. Not a single life form delved in the deeps, but the water flowed endlessly downwards, not a sea bed past beaches shores.

 _It's peaceful,_ the whisper continued, _yes?_

Makurow eyed the edge of the water. What was the whisper calling him to? Makurow pointed his sword out.

 _You knew it was here_. Vibrations in his mind disoriented Makurow. Kirama was the closest explanation to everything. _You didn't know it was here, but something other than myself brought you here._

“Where are you?!” Makurow shouted. _Where are you?_

Makurow flinched at the sea breeze bristling some bushes, he fired a lighting shot at it. Branches parted and leaves caught fire.

_I can feel your movement, but I cannot see you clearly. Blocked by simple trees… some on fire? I should ask you where you are, for if you want to face me I will be willing to meet you. At your exact place._

“Get out of my head,” Makurow pleaded, slashing his sword in the air. “What are we trying to gain? Where's the reward if we cannot die?”

_My reward comes at your head, and everyone else's._

Makurow shut his eyes. Waves like wind pushed on his mind. Makurow searched for Kirama's location but the sea breeze distracted him. The push in his mind was soft, hinting at Kirama being afar.

The sea breeze pushed harder and harder against Makurow, a forceful wind picked up. Storms whistle and dark clouds covered above.

_When was the last time there was a vision?_

Makurow opened his eyes. Waves crashed onto the beach and water splashed against Makurow's white skin. Rain doused the sand. Something in the distant water rocked viciously with the waves. A trunk from a titan of a white tree, carved float steady on the open water. A structure of nature with trees growing out the side, using the leaves as sails. It slowly sailed to the shore, struggling against the storm. A figure tugged on vines streaming from branches, trying to steer mercifulness.

Makurow wondered the inhabitants of the vessel. It couldn't be one of his robots because they seem to go for metallic looking ships, never something with natural beauty. Makurow worried about the figure. It tried its hardest to beach but the storm wouldn't allow it. Makurow dove into the water without a second thought. He tried swimming, reaching one arm out after another and pushing the water below him, but the waves picked him up, flipped him around, and sent him down under.

He reached out for the surface but couldn't reach it. The ripples in the water from the waves battered Makurow deeper into the water. He had no troubles breathing but the weight of his body forced him to sink effortlessly. He sank in the bottomless part of the sea, he was scared to live forever trapped under dark water, but even though the water was dark Makurow's eyes lit up the particles in front of him like a torch. _I'm the body and soul_ , Makurow thought, _I am in control of my fate._ Makurow pulled out his sword and aimed it upward. The weight of the sword pushed him down faster. Makurow forced power to the sword. His body shone like a bioluminescent fish and light shot from his sword. The water evaporated in a sphere around him, creating a soft bubble floating in the water. He sat week inside as his vision slowly faded. Another vision awaited him and he was prepared to learn from it.


	17. Reunion

Rapid thumps bashed against Robin’s chest. Darkness kept her vision and her head felt light. In a dream encapsulated she slept. She felt unbalanced and her ears felt flooded. Her brain swayed on the boat she slept on but the pace felt odd.

“Robin?” Garth’s voice asked. Robin imagined his burly body watching over hers as she lied peacefully. He kneeled down slowly, one knee after another. He kneeled beside her like a prince observing a princess sleeping curse. He bowed down moving his face closer to hers. He pushed her chin up with the pad of his fingers and kissed Robin sideways.

A force flowed through her chest and Robin's heart jogged for a second, then faded.

Hurt. Hurt the heart felt. Death clouded Robin’s mind. _Is my time already over_? She was contempt with leaving Garth’s world, she done all she could, but something inside her wanted more.

Her lips felt abused and her throats felt restrained. She couldn't breathe. Hands pushed down on her chest. A lump rode up her throat. Pain like fire burned her neck. The lump stopped under her chin, then moved back down. Fingers wrapped around her chin again and warmth pressed her lips. The lump rocketed out of her mouth, gushing at the lips.

The chilled air surrounded her skin and she could feel the cold, wet floor boards on her back. Hands moved under her back and flipped her onto her side. Mucous continued to vomit out of her mouth onto the floor. Robin cracked open he eyes. Garth's silhouette in the pouring rain sat by her side.

“Robin?” Garth asked against the barraging rain.

She let out a weak moan. The last thing that she remembered was meditating on the upper deck. It was late at night, and she was dealing with troubling thoughts. Garth had moved back into the main quarters and he had avoided her throughout the day.

“Thank god,” Garth sighed with relief.

“What happened?”

“This storm is what happened,” Garth explained, “it came out of nowhere and threw the boat around. I came out here looking for you and lucky spotted you in the water.” Garth was drenched, particularly common in this circumstance but he wasn't drenched by the rain.

The words coming from Garth's mouth made no sense to Robin. How could she have floated in the water? Why didn't she wake up to the storm? _Why did you save me?_

Garth reached out for Robin's arm. He lifted her up and placed her over his shoulders. He carried her back to the Captain's quarters. Robin held onto Garth as tight as she could, but she was weak. She didn't want to let go. Rain pelted against her, stressing her face.

Robin wailed. Crying and panting as she hugged onto Garth's back. Garth took a quick glance at her but looked away fast. He loved her. No one would risk their lives to save someone who they despise. She didn't control him to, it was all his volition. She felt his warm aroma around him and knew then that he loved her.

Garth laid Robin gently on Lily’s bed.

“You found her!” Lily rejoiced, standing behind the desk. “Is she alright?”

“She almost drowned,” he explained. Robin continued to bawl and covered her face with her hands. “Get those wet clothes off her, light some candles, and keep her warm. I have a ship to steer.”

As Garth exited the quarters Robin stumbled off the bed and reached for a scrap of paper and an ink pen, pushing Lily’s aid away.

Garth pulled on a rope to a sail, letting another sailor tie the loose rope. The harsh winds pushed on the large sails; the rope tried pulling Garth off the boat but Garth stood strong. The winds howled and the floorboards shook. Garth felt the tension from the sails and the rope leading behind him. He gently released the rope, testing its stability. The tether was securely tied.

The waves battered the ship, and it felt as though something was trying to lift the boat off the water. A lookout dropped down from the watchtower’s ladder. He crashed to the floor.

“Are you alright?” Garth asked the crew mate as he scurried to his aid. The pirate was shocked, he expected to be scolded by Garth after he slipped off the ladder.

“I'm fine,” he replied, trying to get up on his feet. “I spotted huge waves coming from portside.”

“How big?”

“Massive,” he responded with terror in his eyes, pointing over to the side of the ship.

“Turn the ship against port side!” Garth yelled at Zekeao steering in the upper deck.

“Pardon?” Zekeao asked, unable to hear Garth. Darkness crept over the left side of the ship.

“Turn right!” Garth yelled, taking a step at the stairs.

Raining turned into showers and the crew became disoriented, trying to move against the barrels of water splashing over them. The boat tipped to the right, lifting the left side up. Zekeao tried looking to his left. Water rose vertically sixty meters high. As if the boat was already on its side, the boats passengers could see flat ocean water moving beside them at their same level.

The wind and buoyancy kept the ship afloat for as long as it could, but as the ship climbed up the wave, their downfall angle became steeper. Crew mates tried holding onto sturdy parts of the ship as it tilted. Garth held onto the railing while Zekeao stood by the wheel.

Robin walked out of the Captain's quarters holding an empty bottle, and she walked in her loose nightgown. She walked like a zombie and looked cold as ice. Unfazed by gravity she strolled, pinned to the floorboards with full balance at its angle. Ice froze under her feet, collecting at her toes. She stuck to the floor beneath her with a blizzards chill. Her skin on her foot bleed as it cracked against the frost. Her hair blew upward against the rough wind, dazzling in the rain.

Pellets of water fell horizontal to Robin, and few getting close froze to hail. The boat was seconds till flipping entirely. Robin pressed her arms out, holding them out to the giant wave. The wave hunched over, showing its top. Robin moved her hands slowly down and around the boat. Water crashed violently against the side of the ship, but it moved under it stabilizing the tilt. The ship slowly regained its upward position and the wave lifted the vessel up and over its deadly existence. As the boat reached the top, Robin moved her hands upward, palms up, pushing to the sky, the ship rose higher than it's ever been before, almost reaching the storm clouds.

Garth scurried to the mainsail trying to untie the knot. Zekeao turned the wheel, trying to ease the ship down the large waves back. The ship stood almost one hundred meters above sea level. The boat shimmied and shifted trying to flip onto its side, but Garth and Zekeao held it together.

Robin stood still, watching the wave travel by. She sensed a presence living in the water, larger than any other creature she had met. Could the tsunami wave be intentional? There was something or someone trying to stop them from reaching the west. Robin knew they were close to land. She had been meditating every night, but also casting a spell that slowed the night cycle for the boat but keeping the same movement speed across the ocean; letting it travel longer distances in a shorter time. Crew mates could sleep through the whole slowed time and they would still feel like they had slept for only eight hours. Robin intentionally sped up the travel by reducing her sleeping hours, which may have been the reason she passed out into the water earlier this morning.

Garth held to the rope on his own. Crewmates helped with the other side and scooped barrels of water off the boat. The rain and the wind settled but the dark moody clouds wouldn't leave. It was cold and wet standing on the silent ship. Everyone sat in awe, trying to gather themselves. Garth's hands shook, holding tight to the loose rope; it wasn't going anywhere. It was unbelievable that they survived. A wave like that, never seen before, should have taken the black vessel and everything on it to the bottom of the sea. Garth was surprised by Robin's abilities.

Garth moved towards Robin. Afraid, she ran back into the Captain’s quarters. With his hands out, Garth pulled back, feeling sorrow in his chest.

“What was that?” Zekeao asked.

“Her?” Garth responded.

“No,” Zekeao said quickly, “the tsunami wave, higher than the clouds!”

“Nothing normal about it,” Garth said, shifting his thoughts.

“Exactly, something caused that, and I'm sure it was meant for us.”

“You think something is in the water?” Garth asked.

“I hope not.” Zekeao moved away from the wheel to the railing. He stared at the surface of the water. The ocean water was too dark and storm fog circled the ship. The fog moved like a school of fishes, moving in, then pushing out as the boat rocked.

Something human swam in the depths of the sea, with a mind able to think enough to be drawn to the black boat by choice. I knew the boats inhabitants and their intentions. It was nervous. The self-proclaimed, greatest arm, Garth stood on that boat with a powerful sorceress. Hesitant would better describe the being. It couldn't be scared by such tiny creatures.

It peered out of the water, shrouded in fog. It sought for a time to strike. It saw a perfect opportunity; The sorceress hid in her chambers and the hulk was separated from his sword.

Eyes stared at the top of its head. A sad man with no inhibitions. The world wants him to exist for other reasons. He's the oddity of the group. He stands out more than the witch and the brute, but there is a girl he connects with. A girl everyone thinks comes from the same area as him, but has drifted from a faraway land that is closer to her than she thinks. The being in the water knows all this. The teller of present, past, and future yet to come. A reliable guardian in hiding, and there is a disturbance in its world. An entity from another world out of its sight, messing with the flow of the world and pushing it away from the line that it follows.

It was on the ship. It wasn't always on the ship, otherwise it would have been gone the second it arrived. The outer world entity caused the storm but the being caused the wave. It would have been trick for the being to catch the ship as the ocean waves pushed the ship back and forth, and away from it. A tidal wave would suffice; big enough to level a city. It would overpower and calm the storm, and if it destroyed the ship then there would be no problem for the giant being.

Now that the boat stood still on the dark sea, the greatest creature was ready to reveal itself.

General Zekeao stared at a lump in the water covered in fog. Something was hiding beneath the fog.

“Garth come here,” Zekeao instructed, waving Garth over.

“GARTH!” The sound a fog horn blew, alien to most. The ominous sound spoke Garth's name, audible to the ear. It was a reaction to Zekeao’s words.

The ship's crew was frightened. Robin turned to look out the window and Lily sat behind her. Robin recognized the sound; she was the only one that could.

“That's a fishing ships horn,” Robin whispered, “but what is it doing here in this place and now?”

Zekeao backed off from the railing, scanning the ocean's surface. Garth approached the call. _What made that noise?_

The being erupted out of the water, prude and tall. Garth leaped back as it swung at him. The monster repeated Garth's name in its loud and shaking voice.

“OGRE!” Garth yelled, identifying the being.

“Don't Ogres live in swamps?” Zekeao questioned in fear.

“You're thinking of a swamp troll.” Garth charged to the Capitan’s quarters, his legendary sword sat in a brace by the door. “I need my sword!”

The Ogre smashed down with its massive hands, catching a sail and smacking the helm. A rope from the sail tangled around a pirate and the ogres fist, when it lifted its hand, the pirate flew off the ship. Floor boards bent down on the hit but no threatening damages. The ship was strong.

The Ogre scanned the ship with its blank canvass face. The Ogre had the posture and figure of a giant human, but it's face and body was completely blank. No mouth, no noes, no eyes, but it could talk, smell, and see. No one had seen an Ogre before this. They were elusive creatures who avoided all contact with any living thing. Only old wanderers talked about the sneaking giants, thinking they saw them.

Garth tugged on the door handle, it was locked on the inside.

“Robin,” Garth yelled, “open the door!”

Robin scurried to find the key. It had fallen to the floor when the Ogre hit the boat. The Ogre braced the side of the ship and pulled it towards itself, throwing the crew to the other side. Robin fell over top the table, the sound of metal clattered on the rooms floorboard. The sound came from under the bed. Robin pulled herself to the bed. The silver key barely shone under the beds shade.

Robin unlocked the door as quickly as she could. She peered through the door ajar. Garth lied stuck under wooden rubble from the sail. Robin held onto the door frame with one hand while swishing the other in the air. She tried lifting the wood with her magic. It was too heavy and it had jammed itself in between the floor and another sail pole. Robin tried but the debris wouldn't budge. She had to manually move the pole but she couldn't move. The Ogre shook the ship violently, jostling the pirates side to side. Robin couldn't see but Zekeao stood behind the rubble trying to help Garth with all that he could.

Garth lied on his stomach with his head towards Robin. The Ogre reached to the front of the ship, grabbing it from below. It tilted the ship back, sunk into the water and looked into the cannon windows. _Garth_ , it repeated. The three were confused. Clearly the giant saw Garth; did it just not know what he looked like?

The sound of wheels rolled in the lower level of the ship, someone was moving the cannons around.

“General,” Garth moaned, “tell them to fire the cannons.”

Zekeao moved away from Garth and stumbled down the stairs. There was silence for a second as the Ogre peered into the ship. A loud bang followed by a cannon cruising through the ship, flying at the Ogre leaving a giant hole in the middle of the boat. From Garth's view, wooden chips flew off in the distance and the Ogre collapsed into the water, dropping the boat.

The boat bounced and the wooden post broke through the floor, collapsing free onto Garth. Garth pushed on the floor trying to lift the wood on his back. Robin quickly used her powers to lift the wood off Garth, letting him rise to his feet. The boat was in ruins and barely held itself together. Luckily for its size it was still able to stay afloat.

Garth flopped onto the floor, crawling towards Robin. She stumbled back at the sight of weak, old Garth, and fled back into the quarters. Garth crawled through the open door. His sword sat upright and still by him. He rested on it, lifting himself back into his feet.

“What are you trying to do?” Robin asked, finally getting herself to talk.

“I'm going to save us,” he said, grinding his teeth.

“How?”

“I’m going to cut its head off in one swing.” Garth pulled the sword out of the holder with both hands. He charged out the door regaining all his strength.

“That's impossible,” she screamed from the doorway.

“I'm not the Greatest Warrior for nothing,” Garth boasted, “I can do anything as long as I have my legendary sword.” The red metal glimmered in both of Garth's hands. “I was awarded this sword when I avenged a town destroyed by a group of witches. I'm always to be ‘trusted’, as spelt on the blade, to do the right thing.”

Garth waited at the center of the wrecked ship for the Ogre to appear. The water swished and bellowed as it swam under. He stood ready, holding the sword in both hands by his chest.

Fingers crawled up the side of the ship, giant fingers that wrapped over the rails. The being propped itself up. A cannon lied embedded in its stomach, bent and damaged.

“Garth!” It called in its siren voice.

Garth pressed the swords tip against the ground. He moved his left foot in front of his right and pivoted to face away from the Ogre. His sword scraped the floor, creating a half a circle around him. He lifted his sword off the ground and hunched over it. With his right hand over his left, he rotated his upper body and used his whole body to push through into the sword, massively swinging in open air. Garth let out a groan. He aimed the swing at the Ogre’s head, near the expected collar bone area.

A fracture in the air traveled instantly from Garth's blade through the Ogre’s neck. A magical transparent blade, created by the rose sword, decapitated the giant in one swing without getting anywhere close to it. Three times the size of the ship and two yards away from a perfect slice, the Ogre stood.

The Ogre wailed its arms in the air, trying to save itself but showing clear signs of no nerve control. The head slid back but it's body fell forward, towards the boat. One of the arms aimed at the upper deck, the one Robin sat below. The other fell towards the front of the ship.

Garth barreled towards Robin, screaming her name for reassurance, he didn't want to lose her. Robin tried moving away from the doorway but moved slowly. Garth dropped his sword to the broken floorboards. Adrenaline rushed through his blood like never before. Robin looked up at the arm then back at Garth, locking onto his eyes.

The arm reached contact with the black of the upper deck. Garth dove forwards, reaching his arms out. Robin stood still refusing to accept her demise. Garth reached for the white of her skin, revealed in her high cut shirt and wet, thin pants. He felt the cold as ice skin on his rough fingers.

He pulled her close, into his embrace as he followed through forward, bringing her deeper into the quarters. The arm broke through passing behind Garth. Wood chips grazed of Garth's bare shoulders and back. Garth tried turning to his side as he collapsed to the ground with Robin in his arms.

The Ogre’s arm slipped back and fell off the ship. The two sat in terrified silence.

Garth held Robin tightly in his arms, she was weak and shivering. He felt her heart beating rapidly. He pushed her out to look at her face. They stared back into each other's eyes. Garth finally accepted his place with her, he was willing to comfort her but he only needed her permission. I'm the moment he wanted admit the feeling he had for her.

He stared deep into her eyes, and she searched his, looking for the proper response. Her heat pounded but her stomach felt ill. Time and time again she fell into the same arms. She closed her eyes and let off a deep sigh, she knew the answer.

Garth leaned in slowly and Robin did as well. Garth slowly closed his eyes, Robin stopped halfway.

"Tomorrow," she said. Garth felt her shoulders tightened up in his hands. "Tomorrow we will reach land." And both their hearts sank.

 

A hard, cold arm grabbed Makurow through his safety bubble and lifted him out of the water, throwing him onto soft grass. Makurow looked around, through water washing down his face he saw a large beautiful tree in the middle of an oval patch of grass, with vines trickling down to the dirt. A large stone golem stood over him. Makurow backed off from the golem. Countless times before, first encounters seemed to turn to feudal fighting.

“Hello,” the golem said, his lips moved ruggedly, scraping across his rock face. His pebble teeth chattered and his mud tongue slurred.

“Hey,” Makurow responded hesitantly. He stared at the golems asymmetrical body. The right arm was long and large but with only three fingers on the hand, two for pinching and one on the side. While the other arm was short and stubby, like a baby’s.

“What were you doing in the water, metal man?” The golem asked.

“I assumed drowning,” Makurow said with a laugh. The golem didn't find it funny.

The golem looked around the area, looking like he was lost. “So this is our afterlife?”

“You believe that too?” Makurow quickly responded.

“Believe?” The golem said appalled, “I'm most certain this is. My name is Garth, what is yours?”

“Garth? I've heard that name before.” Makurow thought out loud, “my name is Makurow.”

“Makurow!” Garth said with some anger. Makurow paused staring back in fear. Garth clenched his claw hand and pulled it up his side. “That's a nice name! What is your correlation to a woman named Robin Wattson?”

“I don't know who that is,” Makurow said, feeling some relief. “but hearing that name brings a great pain to my soul.”

“I know how you feel,” Garth sighed. “Humph. It seems she's not the only one who forgets in their reincarnation. Sir Makurow, how many people are in this world?”

“Quite a few,” Makurow said, “the majority of which are my own rampant creations, controlled by a wicked man.”

“How many did you make?!” Garth was thinking of thousand creations roaming the world creating a total domination. “How in the world did you make so many?”

“There is only seven,” Makurow said confused, “and I've already dealt with one.”

“I cannot believe there are only seven, there must be more of us if you are saying the ratio is like that.”

“Let me see… we have me, Thresh, Snake, Sibious, Wander, Kirama… and… you. That's seven!” Makurow said.

“So we have the upper hand now?”

“No… Sibious controls the robots, my creations, and Kirama believes everyone to be her enemy. Snake isn't easy to trust and The Wanderer likes to stay out of matters.”

“Why are all of you split?” Garth looked over Makurow's different body. “I thought people who all care for Robin would be friends with each other.”

“We all have missions, given by The Guardian,” Makurow tried to explain, but he didn't really understand the world himself. “You seem to talk about ‘Robin’, maybe she's your mission. Just like Thresh… spoke… of… you.” Makurow paused, staring at Garth in awe.

“I have no idea who Thresh is. To be honest I don't know anyone that you speak of. Do you know someone named Lily?”

“That's a beautiful name, but I do not know who that is.” Makurow felt a familiarity with the name ‘Lily’. “Where are we? My friend Thresh and I were staying just outside a beach, in the forest. I would like for you to meet Thresh.”

Garth turned his head off into the distance, Makurow followed it. Makurow's eyes lit up as he saw his surroundings. Blue ocean water splashed around the two. They sat on a split log with a tree growing in the middle and grass growing below on its roots. The log didn't look cut or carved but rather naturally grown to the way it was. It was a ship on the water.

Garth was the man in the storm on the peculiar boat that Makurow witnessed on the beach. Makurow wanted to tell him he tried to help him, he really did, but he felt a strange embarrassment thinking about it. So odd that Makurow couldn't understand it.

Garth pulled on a vine, the tree roots twisted, pivoting the boat to face a nearby shore.


	18. Mañana

“This isn't my fault.” Garth stood over Lily's dead body. An arrow pierced through her neck.

She laid on white sand, painting it with her pouring blood. Garth stood frozen, he couldn't get himself to move, nor even look away.

A line of footsteps marched in the sand. Big boots beside gun powdered guns. Raised and pointed at Garth's skull.

“Garth!” Zekeao yelled from the grass field connected to the beach.

Garth's body moved on its own, pulling him towards Zekeao. He soared through the grass with his legs dragging behind him. With Zekeao they stopped at a willow tree. Everything was moving too fast for Garth. He couldn't remember anything from five seconds ago. It was unnatural living in the moment, but his mind couldn't wrap around anything that was happening. There was a beach, then a tree, and people were following them, mean people. Maybe there was a dead body on the beach. And anger. Anger and rage, and hatred.

Robin moved from behind the tree. She stood in laced lingerie. Fiery rage brought Garth's hand to Robin's throat.  _ I don't understand _ , Garth thought,  _ this must be a nightmare. _ The word “traitor” jumped from his mouth.

Whispers from Zekeao tickled Garth's ears. “Please  _ Don't.” _

She had ghost white eyes, and blue lips; she was already dead. Garth released from Robin's throat. She collapsed and melted into the tree roots. Sizzling and oozing black mud.  _ Truly a nightmare _ .

It felt like the world was spinning. Turning, turning around in his stomach. Rhythmic thumping shook his head, with the sound of metal scraping against wood before it. The scrape then the thud. He stood staring at the willow tree, large and prominent, with a deathly aura that spoke to Garth.

His body turned slowly, pivoting on his toes. The sun soared over his head, sailing into the horizon. Instantly the moon rose, omnipotent and large. The sky shaded but the light from the moon's reflection kept the tree dimly lit.

Garth looked over to General Zekeao. He was bent over and crawling on his hands and knees. He had a defeated and stunned look on his face, it terrified Garth to look at him but his body forced him to stare. He was wounded but no blood left his skin. His blue veins bulged on his eyeballs.

Brown leather boots marched on poppy flowers. There were just boots; boots half Garth’s size. They were high lipped with spiral lining, spiked like teeth followed the line; a floral design. They had thick heels, grinding on the poppy flowers as they walked. Walking pigeon toed, with a gallant thrust of the shoe.

The boots strolled up to Zekeao, moving to his front. They stood facing his nape. The sound of metal scratching against wood returned, closer than before. Resonating with the brown leather boots. The sound slid up into the sky, Zekeao looked up to seized Garth. “ _ please stop _ ,” he whispers, then the sound returned down. The General’s head popped right off, with blood gushing out of his throat. The ground below became disturbed by a long indent.

Garth stared at Zekeao’s rolling head. It was truly a nightmare bestowed upon him. Zekeao’s head chattered. “Run,” it spoke. Garth closed his eyes instead. Sealing himself away from the bad dream.

_ I’m not afraid _ , he thought to himself. He took a deep breath in trying to smell the air around him. There was an absent of smell lingering. The air was tight. It took a lot of strength to pull air through his nostrils. It felt like he was standing at an altitude higher than Mount Terra, standing four thousand meters high. It wasn’t cold but he could feel the breeze on top the mountain.

Garth kept his eyes closed but moved forward. He kept himself blind. He moved his arms out to guide himself, feeling around the cold, open air. The ground was smooth but Garth could feel the weight of the snow pulling his foot down. He slowly shuffled like a zombie. Ghostly chills shoved past him, flowing over his back. He rocked side to side, pressing his weight on the outside of his foot.

Warm skin pressed against his chest. Softly it pressed but it felt like a sword’s impact. Garth slowly opened his eyes, feeling his world finally coming back to him. The cold mountain chills turned to night time sea breeze. The warmth of his body returned as he stood bare in his underwear on the wreaked lower deck.

Robin lied on rubble wood, chanting inaudible words. Garth approached her trying to touch her gently. She swung her arm around, almost hitting him. He backed off and stared at her face. Her eyes were closed and she was slurring her words. She was fast asleep. She was so sleep deprived that she finally fell asleep during the night. Garth smiled. He looked around. Something was wrong.

The water barely moved, appearing to be a field of flowers. The sails moved slowly, as if someone was rubbing up and down the cloth, not the wind pushing against it.

Each of Robin’s unconscious words started with slurps of air. Garth assumed she was speaking an unknown language, but quickly he figured out she was speaking their language backwards.

Garth pushed through Robins flail. He grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. She woke instantly and looked around scared like a lost child. Wind pushed against Garth’s trousers and the boat jerked forward.

“Robin?” Garth asked, he was suspicious because he never felt magic from Robin like that. “What were you doing?”

She was definitely lost, she searched around the boat. “why are you here?”

“What?” Garth looked around, he did not know how to answer that. “I think I sleep walked, and I think you were using magic in your sleep."

“NO!” she cried.

Her thoughts were scattered before she passed out. She wanted to never reach the shore of the land in the West, but she also wanted enclosure. She was trying to use magic stronger than she had ever used before. Before she slowed down the night cycle for the boat, and that was easy because there was only one thing to control. Tonight Robin was trying to slow down the boat and speed up the entire world. She was using all her remaining strength to make sure the day cycle sped up. She was expecting something to catch up to them but she had no idea where it was coming from.

She didn’t want to tell him what was happening every night since they departed, but now Garth caught her in the act and she knew there was no way to avoid it.

“This voyage was supposed to take three months,” She explained, “but it only took one. I know you are now wondering how we did it in a third of the time. That’s because I’ve been periodically speeding up the trip every night, exhausting myself. These recent nights I have found myself waking up in peculiar places at weird times. Off the boat, in the crow’s nest, or next a person with the scariest urges. I feel like the reason is because the magic taking over me, since I have been using it more than any other sorceress should. But that doesn’t tally up to the draining magic I’ve been using… that I have been using…” She couldn’t get the last words out of her mouth. Garth looked at her like he understood, but truly he was off.

“I’m gracious for your help,” He said watching her eyes blink slowly. “but it seems you really need some sleep. Come, I’ll bring you to your quarters.”

She hesitated to speak, something really bothered her. Wind chilled the side of their faces. Garth grabbed under her shoulder then hooked her legs. She repulsed his hug, curling her arms into her chest. She kept her head low and gazed to sea, behind his back.

Waves surfaced and pushed with the boat, towards the front. Robin watched them. Accompanied with Garth’s warm hug, the waves reminded her of a peacefully day sleeping in an old house by the beach. Watching the midnight tide wash up the shore, with the crescent moon standing over like a godly figure.

The moon would fight with the sun, for both wanted to take over the sky. The sun was self-centered and knew the people would cherish it if it stood up top. When the sun came out the moon would run away, hiding below the horizon and carrying the sheet of darkness down with it. The moon was shy, but it still wanted the pedestal, so it waited till the people who awed the sun became tired. When they became tired, so did the sun. Then the moon climbed back up and took over the sky. It didn’t matter to the moon how many people saw it; it knew those who cared came to see.

“People say they see the moon trying to show herself in the blinding light,” Robin muttered to herself, “But they are too distracted by the brilliance of the sun.” She stared at white sand in the horizon. Her heart stopped. “NO!” She cried.

Garth turned to look off into the distance.

“We made it,” he whispered with a satisfied smile.

She jumped out of his arms, landing on her hands and knees. Garth looked at her for a second, then let her lie there. He moved to the anchor wheel. He pushed on the wheel clockwise, letting the anchor lower slowly. The ship slowed to a crawling speed. Garth ran down the flight to stairs and bashed through the door. He called out, stating loud and clear,  _ they had arrived _ .

The crew lowered dinghy to the beach, carrying groups of five. The first group consisted of Garth, Lily, Yodder, and two pirates.

“I can’t believe my eyes!” Yodder exclaimed, “Your legend of a promised land was true!”

“I can’t believe it either.”

“We’ll see; maybe you tricked us and found a way to circle us around to the East.” Yodder laughed. Garth didn’t think it was funny.

Garth very much could believe that he circled around the world. Finding that all they could see now was a white beach and jungle trees.

Lily sat impatient. Garth found her nauseous in her awake. The boat may have shook her too much, but she wouldn’t tell Garth the reason why. The rocking of the dinghy didn’t help either, mind you.

The two pirates conversed about how they were going to start a new life. One wanted to marry a cute western girl. The other wanted to settle down on a valley farm.

“That’s to say they want us” Yodder said under his breath.

“What?” Garth questioned, slowing down his paddle.

“You travel. You know how it is.” Yodder stated. “You don’t walk into a small town where people don’t know you and expect to be crowned king. It’s clearer to see and I don’t see anyone getting ready to greet us.”

The two pirates looked at each other.

“Well… I think it’s better to stay positive. We are on new land! This is an amazing place to start new lives.” Said the one who wanted to marry.

Lily eyed the tree line behind the beach.

“Are you feeling better?” Garth asked her.

“Do you feel that?” She asked back.

“No, I do not.” Garth said, checking over his shoulder.

“I think Yodder is wrong,” She said, “I think someone  _ is _ waiting for us. Something in my head is telling me someone is standing looking back at us.”

“We better hurry up and get there,” The pirate said, gesturing Garth to paddle faster. “We don’t want to keep them waiting!”

The boat touched the shore and four out of the five got off. Lily staggered herself, trying to regain herself on solid land. One of the pirates stayed on, ready to row back to the ship.

Garth grabbed Lily by the arm. She flinched and try to pull her arm away. Garth released his grasp, apologizing for scaring her. She pressed her hand gently on his.

“No don’t worry,” She said thoughtfully, “something about this place’s ghostly aura is keeping my head in the clouds.”

“Is it a familiarity?”

“I don’t think so…” She stood silent, staring at the trees.

Garth walked by her, heading for the jungle. Yodder hobbled begins him. Yodder had an unnerving itch about the jungle. He wanted to stand behind Garth’s large body for protection even though he still didn’t trust him. Lily slowly paced herself behind them. In the end they left the pirate standing at the beach watching back on the black ship.

The jungle sat short, but it was unveiling. Beautiful plants and varying trees crowded the scenery. It was nothing Yodder had ever seen before. Garth looked back and saw the amazed look on Yodder’s face.

“You lock yourself up in a crowded city and you’ll never see sights like this,” Garth boasted.

“I have traveled.” Yodder said with uproar.

“You have relatives in other cities?” Garth asked with a mischievous smile.

“ _ Had _ .”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Lily apologized, falling behind.

“You shouldn’t be apologizing.” Yodder stared with anger at the back of Garth’s head.

“You chased me across the continent,” Garth said, feeling the negative energy directed at him. “I’m not apologizing to someone as selfish as you. Besides, I have never harmed an innocent man during my career, not saying you’re all that innocent, but if any of your relatives look anything like you, they probably weren’t fighters.”

“Cut the lies!” Yodder said forcefully, “my sister and cousin died in one of your village raids.”

“The village raids were done when the warriors I fought with deemed the village to be unsafe and populated majorly by bandits and criminals, and we vowed to arrest ones who surrendered or refused to fight.”

“When my sister lied dead in houses ruins, I knew it was the cause of your aftermath.”

“My blade never struck her soul, it was never my intention to kill her; i am not to be blamed here.”

“You truly do not know death, sitting at the end of that sword all high and mighty above all others.”

“I  _ do _ know death.” Garth turned with a spout of hot breath. He placed his hand at Yodder’s neck. “I will not apologize for your sisters death; I will apologize for the fact that your sister had no common sense and decide to settle herself with criminals.” Garth stopped himself when he saw the anger in Yodder’s eyes. “My job has always been to get rid of criminals and evils in this world. I would have taken down everyone on that boat if I was ever given the chance.”

“Then why did you run away from the corrupted king? Why did you help a criminal from the east escape? Why did you band with pirates to sail the open sea?  _ WHY _ ?” Yodder asked.

Garth stared blankly at Yodder, he didn’t have an answer.

“Is it because you fell in love with the sorceress? You let your heart open; acting you’re so tough but we all can see you’re not.”

Garth looked back into the trees. The dinghy returned with the second batch of fours. Garth saw her. He knew she couldn’t see her but she was looking right at him. Garth pushed past Yodder, giving him no attention. He pushed by the tree vines away, focusing on her face. Once he brushed past the trees, he waved his arms at Robin. She had worried expression. Zekeao crawled off the boat behind her. Zekeao scanned the beach with delight. Robin fiddled with a knife in her hand. Garth jogged to his friends.

“We got two more lifts,” The General explained, “then everyone will be off the boat.”

Robin quickly turned to the ship. Something crept up her back, itching her to go back. She tilted her head, taking a quick glance at Garth. Her heart stopped.

He saw something off into the distance. Strong enough to stop Garth in his tracks. Robin hobbled over beside Garth. She closed her eyes before looking off in the same direction as Garth. She pictured a raid of ships, cruising from the distance.

She opened her eyes, and all was true.

A fleet of blue and white ships sailed behind the Black Dragon. Flags stole the Empires sigil. Three ships in triangular formation charged at western bay. The far right ship separated from the fleet and the three surrounded the Black Dragon from both sides. Smoke filled the air as cannons blew holes in every part of the remaining ship. Ruins turned to wreckage and the Empire left no survivors.

Robin looked back at Garth, the terror in his eyes caused great disheartening.

He searched her soul. “why?” he asked softly, feeling of sadness wrought in his stomach.

“I needed you to hate me,” She cried, as a fleet of ships closed in behind her.

Lily hid behind the trees with Yodder. Zekeao spotted her and rushed off to join her.

Garth stood paralyzed by the sight of defeat. Robin tugged on his arm, trying to pull him to the jungle. He glanced at the sky, watching the smoke clear in the air. The sun sitting on the sidelines, wanting nothing to do with Garth’s situation, and Garth understood one hundred percent why.

Shadows crawled over Garth’s soul, and ships towered over him. Robin encapsulated him in a magic shield. She yelled and pleaded for Garth to run. She heard the boots drop to the sand, carrying false pride on their shoulders. Their boots clanked; steel wrought in their hands.

A rifle fired. Robin shivered as she embraced her gut. The magic shield dropped and Garth stared down at Robin’s bleeding body. A man approached Robin’s hunched body. He held a long rapier in his left hand.

“I’m going to kill all of you,” Garth said furious.

“ _ Please don’t, _ ” Robin said, weak and dying.

Those words broke into Garth’s head. A nightmare reawakened; a warning that Garth did not abide. He swung at the man, trying to catch the blade from his greatsword against his shoulder. The man moved away and stabbed at Garth. Garth blocked with his sword and stabbed back at the man. Garth stabbed through his chest, pushing through to the other side. Garth pushed the dying man off his sword.

Tens of the Empires men drew close, trying to surround Garth. Garth brought himself up to the challenge. Gracefully he attacked and defended off the circle of swords.

Rows of gunmen lined up to fire at Garth. He spun around and created a seismic wave with his blade. The wave passed through and sliced the row of men in their lower abdomen. A soldier with a handlebar mustache, charged at Garth, keeping his sword high. Garth parried up and sliced down atat his knees.

One of the soldiers swung aimlessly and sliced the tip of the blade against Garth’s back. Garth seized in pain. Every wound made Garth angrier and his moves deadlier. Garth swung so hard he threw himself into the sand. The sword sliced through the soldier trapezius , cutting his arm right off with his shoulder.

The man wailed in pain, crying for sweet death. Garth swung with his chest on the sand, sending the sword into the soldiers solar plexus.

Garth rose with his knees in the sand and looked around tirelessly for any other threats. He pressed his hand down into an indent. Sand slowly crumbled off his hair and stuck to his blood, dripping from his wounds. Robin looked weak and barely functional, but Garth was still hung on saving her. He shakenly stood, wobbling over to Robin.

Garth stepped on a rock and a spark flew from below it, carrying the sound of a Chinese firecracker as it spiraled in front of Garth’s face. Garth looked down to Robin, she had both her hands pressed over each other on top of her bullet wound. The spark was magical, but Robin didn’t control it.

The spark flew in the same spiral, floating in the air. It was a fuse to a magic bomb; the sizzling sound came to silence before it grew massively in size and sent Garth to the soft sand.

Garth tried rolling off the ground but his sore arms, legs and tired ambitions kept him grounded.

He tilted his head down, barely getting his view on Robin.

The structure of a burly man sat under a blue cloak appeared over Garth. Garth tried looking at his face hidden under the hood. Garth presumed it was Zekeao returning to help them, seeming as the man was wearing the same cloak. It may have been older looking and tattered, but what could have happened to Zekeao in the short time that they were apart?

Garth reached out to the man, and the man reached back. Garth saw the man's hand, it was wrinkled and worn, nothing like Zekeao’s strong, young hands. Garth placed his arms back behind him, he tried getting up on his own. The man pulled him arm close to him and formed an ice ball in his hand. The man shattered the ice ball against Garth’s shoulder, sending him back down to the sand.

The man in the cloak was a wizard, possibly from the Empire, but there was no mistaking that he was in fact wearing an older version of Zekeao’s cloak.

Garth’s right half was immobilized. The ice rock was so cold it numbed Garth’s arm on impact.

The wizard marched towards Robin. Garth tried to pull himself up but the ice spell made his arm weight a ton. Garth dragged himself in the sand, he wouldn’t let the man touch Robin. Wisps of blue spiraled out of the wizard's left sleeve. The wisps grabbed Robin by the collar and lifted her up. The man stood looking into Robin’s eyes. Garth dragged close; almost close enough to stop the man, but not close enough. The wizard summoned an ice spear from his right hand. Robin opened her eyes for a moment, trying to get a glimpse of faith. He brought his left hand up and placed it in front of Robin’s face. The wisps dilated from his left arm. Garth pulled himself up and lifted his sword up with his free arm.

The wizard shot the ice spear into Robin’s chest, penetrating through her heart.

The wizard spotted Garth in his peripherals and slid back, but Garth slashed his sword down, his anger controlled him and made him inaccurate. The sword met with the joint of his left arm. The sword cut to the very end of the bone before the sword cracked and split through the middle.

The engravings on the sword lit up like a lantern, then vanished off the red metal. The sword sent a blast of wind into the air. The sword split into two and sent the top half into the wizards neck. 

The wind blew Garth onto the sand, Robin onto her back, and the hood off the wizard. Garth looked at the cut off arm. What power did the wizard have to break his magical sword? The arm was old and hairy. Garth chattered his teeth, something worried him more than anything ever did. He slowly peered to the wizard. Garth’s jaw dropped and his heart drummed, dropping his broken sword into the bloody sand. He stared at his greatest fear right into its eyes, and watched it die.

The wizard, with the broken end of the sword buried deep into the bottom of his neck, pulled his hood over his head, then collapsed dead onto the ground.

Robin lied on her side feeling the blood rush out of her body through the multiple holes. She faced the dead hooded wizard and the shadows covered his face completely. Her vision narrowed and she felt her body become cold and her eyes dilate. She saw Garth’s face under the hood looking back at her with dead eyes.  _ I love you _ , she thought. Fear of leaving another caring soul, crushed her heart.  _ I love you.  _ His fine scarred face sat under the blue cloak. She saw scars that she never noticed before. He wasn’t perfect, but so wasn’t she.  _ I love you. _ It was a wordless goodbye, she would drift off onto another terrible life while Garth would wait at the gates of their final lives, but she wouldn’t remember him. He was going to be lost. Lost like the thousand other lovers that fell to her.

** “ _ I love you _ .”  
**


End file.
